Things Forgotten
by LotusTattoo
Summary: Mercedes suffers a head injury that causes her to forget the last 10 years of her life with Sam. She remembers them happy and completely in love, but their reality is something entirely different. Can they regain what they have lost?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or What Alice Forgot or any of its characters.

Mercedes heard Quinn's distant and frightened voice calling her name repeatedly, but she couldn't bring herself to open her eyes. She just wanted to lie where she was and relax. An image of a large and beautiful garden came to her mind and there was a pretty Asian lady sitting next to her laughing with the sun behind her head, she heard kids yelling in the background.

"Mercedes, please open your eyes, Mercedes!" Quinn was saying and she felt her gripping her hand tightly.

Where was she? Why was she on the hard ground? She just needed a little more rest. She let her mind drift and a fragment of a memory came to her of Sam talking to her about Trey's birthday party. Who was Trey?

"Mercedes! Open your eyes NOW!" Quinn was yelling at her.

"I don't want to Quinn. I'm fine. Please, just let me sleep."

"She knows who I am, okay, this is good, right?" Mercedes could hear her talking to someone. She opened her eyes and saw a large crowd around her, was she lying on the sidewalk? Mercedes immediately tried to get up.

"No! Mercedes, stay lying down. I think you have a concussion." Quinn said as she gently pushed down on her shoulders.

She looked over at Quinn, she looked so much older. She had wrinkles around her eyes that she swore she never had before. And her hair was in a short pixie cut instead of just below her shoulders like she always had it.

"Quinn! When did you cut your hair?"

She looked back at Mercedes with a confused expression when they heard the ambulance siren coming down the street.

"Just don't move or talk until the paramedics get here, okay?"

Her head hurt, so she decided against arguing with her best friend and kept quiet. Instead she looked around. She saw the awning of a coffee shop. It looked very cute. Oh no! My baby!

"Oh, Quinn, you don't think this has hurt the baby at all, do you? We need to call Sam." Mercedes started to tear up. She thought of Sam and how he was always telling her to not wear such high heels while pregnant. He would scold her teasingly about trying to make herself taller before pulling her to him and rubbing her belly while talking to their tiny baby about how short its mother was.

"Honey, I think you should wait until the paramedics get here," Quinn said with the slight sound of panic in her voice. The ambulance sounded like it was really close. She couldn't believe she was laid up here in the middle of a side walk. Her hands went to her stomach and said a silent prayer for her little sweet baby in there. She was early in her pregnancy, only 3 months, but Sam was convinced they were having a boy and had already bought a tiny football for him. Her hands started to feel her stomach with more focus; it felt tighter than it ever had before. She felt along her sides, there was still some meat there, but it just felt different.

The ambulance pulled up right along the curb and people started to disperse, but they didn't go far. Quinn stood up and ran up to the paramedics and began to talk in anxious whispers. She's so dramatic sometimes, thought Mercedes as they all came over to her.

"Hi. I'm Nick. What is your name?"

"Mercedes."

"Do you think you can sit up for me, Mercedes?"

Mercedes went to sit up with the help of paramedic Nick and Quinn. She felt a little dizzy, but otherwise okay.

"How do you feel?"

"I feel fine, just a little dizzy. I am pregnant though, so I think I should go in just to make sure everything is okay."

She saw Quinn flinch out of the corner of her eye and looked over at her quickly. She was looking at the paramedic trying to convey something to him without speaking. When she saw Mercedes looking at her, she looked back at her with worried eyes.

"Quinn?" Mercedes quietly asked her friend.

"Mercedes, I think we should have them take you to the hospital and we can talk to a doctor there, okay?"

"You are starting to scare me, Quinn. Why are you acting so strange? Will you please call Sam?"

"I will. Nick, I think we ought to take her in, it seems like she's not remembering things properly."

Nick nodded his head and asked Mercedes one last question before he turned to go and get the gurney,

"Mercedes, how old are you?"

"Twenty-four," she answered.

Quinn's hand flew to her mouth and covered it as she was shaking her head back and forth.

"Mercedes, you are thirty-four years old. Next week is your thirty-fifth birthday party, we were coming down here to work out the last minute details."

Mercedes' heart started to beat fast and her hands were instantly clammy. What was going on? Did she have brain damage?

"Quinn, what are you talking about? We work together at Cadenza Magazine for that asshole, Ryan. Sam and I are married and I'm three months pregnant. Sam just signed that contract with MCA…."

Quinn was shaking her head.

"That happened ten years ago, sweetie. Please, let's just get to the hospital. I will call Sam and follow the ambulance in your car, okay?" She said as she gave Mercedes her purse.

Nick and his partner were back to put Mercedes onto the gurney. She let them put her on and strap her to it in a shocked silence. She listened as Quinn told them that the two of them had been walking when Mercedes said she felt dizzy and just fainted and hit her head on the outdoor coffeehouse table before falling to the ground. She had been out cold for a few minutes before she came to again.

"Mercedes, I will see you at the hospital," Quinn said as she squeezed her hand and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before turning to go.

When she was loaded into the back of the ambulance, Nick stayed in the back with her.

"Mercedes, what is your full name?"

"Mercedes Evans," she answered. That was easy. He did a double take at her before continuing.

"Do you remember what you had for breakfast this morning?"

She thought hard, she always had oatmeal.

"Oatmeal." She didn't want to say too much, so she would keep her answers short.

"Okay, that's good. Do you know what year it is?"

Mercedes didn't want to answer because she knew, if Quinn was right, that it was not 2012, but 2022.

"2022," she finally said.

"Okay, great. Now I'm going to shine this light in your eyes to check your pupil dilation."

Nick shined the small light into both eyes and seemed satisfied with what he saw.

"It looks good, I think if anything you have a small concussion, but let's wait to see what they say at Nashville General. Just lay back and try to relax, okay?"

Easy for him to say, she thought to herself. She tried to take deep breaths as he took her blood pressure and listened to her racing heart. Thirty-four? There was no way she had lost a decade of her life. She just needed to see Sam. She knew he would make her feel safe and no matter what had happened to her memory, if she could just be in his arms, her fear would dissipate.

She knew once Quinn got a hold of him, he would race to the hospital and would probably be there before this ambulance. Thinking of him made her feel a little less anxious. She just kept telling herself she would see him in less than 20 minutes.

They pulled up to the emergency entrance of the hospital and it was a flurry of medical staff all around her as she was brought out of the ambulance and rolled into the hospital. Mercedes looked around and everyone was looking at her and whispering as they rolled by. She gave them a look to let them know she saw them whispering and didn't appreciate it. Had they never had someone in here before that had fainted and lost consciousness?

Her hands went to her belly again as if protecting their baby. But there is no baby in there. That baby is now a ten year old kid. Mercedes' panic returned as she thought of not knowing her own child.

They got to her room and she asked one of the nurses helping her if she could check to see if her husband was there in the ER.

"He's about 6'1, blonde hair – "

"I know what your husband looks like, Mrs. Evans," the nurse cut in.

"How, how would you know what Sam looks like?"

The nurse was a little startled, but recovered quickly.

"Mrs. Evans, he is a very famous country singer."

Mercedes looked back at the nurse and for a minute, all of her fear gave way to complete happiness for Sam. He was famous? He had done it! A smile broke across her face.

"Famous?"

"Yes, ma'am." The nurse responded as she went about getting Mercedes hooked up to different machines to monitor her vitals.

"Are you sure he's not here yet?"

"After I'm finished here, I can go look again." She quickly did her checklist of things and told her the doctor would be in soon and she would check the lobby for her husband.

Mercedes looked around and down at her purse. My phone! I can call him. She managed to stretch and reach her purse. She opened it and dug around until she found and extremely thin silver phone.

She pushed the button on the top and the screen came to life. There was a picture of two adorable children, one older boy and a young girl. These are my children, she thought as the tears started to pool in her eyes. She put her fingers on the boy's face and the picture disappeared to show her phone menu. She touched the contacts button and scrolled down until she saw "Sam Cell" and dialed.

It rang three times before he picked it up.

"Mercedes, what is going on? Why are you and Quinn calling me?" Sam said in a tone of voice Mercedes had never heard him use with her before.

She couldn't find her voice for a moment.

"Sam, you are not on your way to the hospital?"

"What? No, are the kids okay?" His curt voice turned to concern when he asked about their children that she didn't know.

"I fell and had a pretty hard hit on my head apparently. Sam, could you please just come down here?"

There was silence on his side of the line.

"Mercedes, are you okay? You haven't wanted me near you for months and now you want me to come down there?"

"What are you talking about Sam? We are married, we have these two children, what do you mean I haven't wanted you near me? I love you, Sam. I really need you here right now." She was on the verge of hysterics; she just needed Sam next to her.

"Mercedes, we are separated," Sam answered to a stunned and distraught Mercedes.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or What Alice Forgot or any of its characters.

**Thanks for reading, everyone! I love reading your reviews, please keep them coming! I hope you enjoy.**

"Separated" – Mercedes had never thought one word would have the force to crush her. All of her confusion and fear came bubbling to the surface and she began to cry.

"Mercedes?" she heard Sam say with genuine concern. Right at that moment, Quinn walked in and saw her friend on the phone crying.

"Is that Sam?" she asked Mercedes.

She could only nod in response. Quinn put out her hand to ask for the phone. Mercedes handed it over and watched Quinn put the phone to her ear, walk back towards the door and talk to Sam in hushed whispers.

All Mercedes could pick up was: "doesn't know", "ten years" and "the kids". Then she looked at Mercedes and pointed to the door to say she would be taking the rest of the call with Sam outside of the room. Mercedes watched her through the door from her bed and hugged herself.

This couldn't be true. She and Sam were a team, always had been and always would be. Mercedes looked down at her ring finger for her two bands and found it empty except for a tan line where they usually resided. She squeezed her eyes shut. No.

She began to list off memories to help her keep her sanity: She met Sam the very first day of college at Vanderbilt. She grew up in Lima, Ohio. Quinn was her best friend since high school. She was married to Sam the summer after they graduated. She was an assistant editor at Cadenza Magazine with Quinn. Sam had signed a record contract with MCA after a talent agent had seen him perform at a Nashville bar called Riley's. They found out she was pregnant a couple of weeks before MCA. They were happy. They were completely in love with one another. Their saying to each other was, "You are my forever."

"Mercedes," Quinn had come back into the room.

"Quinn, what happened to me and Sam?"

"Cedes, I think we need to talk to the doctor – "

She was interrupted by the ER doctor coming in to see Mercedes.

"Mercedes, hi, I'm Dr. Cullen. I understand you have a head injury due to a fall."

Mercedes looked at the pretty young doctor and just nodded her head. She couldn't focus on anything at the moment and it had nothing to do with her possible concussion and everything to do with Sam. She was only half listening when her doctor told her about the exams they would need to do to determine if she needed to be admitted. Medical history, physical and neurologic exam, questions to test mental ability. She continued to silently agree to it all. She was thankful Quinn was there to answer questions about what happened before, during and after the fall.

Dr. Cullen thanked Quinn and said she would be back shortly to start conducting the first of the exams.

"Quinnie, I don't know what all of these tests are going to tell me that I don't already know."

"Wow, you haven't called me that for years," Quinn said walking over to the bed.

"I'm so scared. Sam said to me that we are separated, this is insane. What happened to us?"

Quinn sighed and looked at her friend.

"Mercedes, to be honest, I'm not exactly sure. You kind of distanced yourself from me over the past year. We only started to spend time regularly together this past month and you would get so angry when talking about Sam that I just stopped bringing it up."

Mercedes looked at her incredulously.

"Quinn," she choked out, "I don't think we have ever gone more than 12 hours without talking to each other!"

Quinn was quiet and looked down at her feet.

"I know," she said softly.

"I need to see him. What did he say when you talked to him?"

"He's going to pick up Trey and Laila from school later. He said he would come here after he drops them off with his parents."

"Trey and Laila. Those are our children's names." Mercedes was saying more to herself than to Quinn.

"Yes. They are great kids, Cedes. You guys have done an amazing job with them."

"Sam is famous?"

Quinn let out a chuckle, "He is. He's a big country star."

"I knew he would be, Quinn." They smiled at each other.

There was a knock at the door and the nurse and Dr. Cullen came in to start with Mercedes.

"I'll just be in the waiting room, okay?" Quinn said as she made her way out.

After all the tests and questions, they determined she should stay overnight so they could continue to monitor her. She was told she had retrograde amnesia and a minor concussion. They would be moving her to the room she would stay in that night.

The nurse went and got Quinn and she helped push Mercedes' wheelchair to the elevators to get to her room. When they got there, Mercedes took her standard issue hospital gown (which looked a hell of a lot more comfortable than the form fitting shirt and jeans she was wearing now) and went into the bathroom.

She looked in the mirror and was startled by her reflection. She was wearing more make up than she was used to; it was a bit smeared now. Her face was thinner. Her hair was bone straight instead of the waves that she liked. She guessed she looked pretty, but she just didn't look like _her_. She turned on the water in the sink to warm it up so she could wash all of the makeup off. After washing her face, she took off her clothes and slipped into the hospital gown, then stepped out of the bathroom.

"Quinn, I – " she stopped short when she realized Quinn wasn't in the room anymore, but Sam was. He looked so handsome. He had a rugged look about him now that suited him well. He was wearing jeans, and black v-neck and a baseball cap pulled low.

Before Mercedes could think to stop herself, she ran to him and threw her arms around him burying her face into his chest. It was so familiar and comforting, except the fact that his arms were still at his sides. He slowly brought his hands up and patted her on her shoulders while drawing her away from him. Her heart felt like it was breaking into pieces all over again. She looked up at him, but he was looking at the wall.

"Sam, please. Please just look at me."

He looked down to her and they made eye contact without speaking. He went to reach up to touch her cheek, but he stopped himself and brought his hand back down to his side. He took off his cap and his hair fell forward. She reached up and pushed it back. At least he didn't flinch at my doing something I have done thousands of times in the past, she thought to herself.

"Mercedes, you should lie down."

"Okay," she said as turned and walked to the bed and climbed up. She patted the bottom of the bed for him to sit down.

He stayed standing.

"Your doctor told me everything. She said you can't remember the last 10 years."

"It's true. One of the last things I remember is you getting your record contract and I was pregnant."

Sam smiled for the first time since coming in.

"Remember that horrible apartment we lived in?" He asked as he sat down on the bed next to her, "Paper thin walls, we could hear that nasty neighbor watching porn?"

"I don't know what was worse, that guy, or the old couple above us that we could hear having sex constantly," Mercedes laughed.

"Mr. and Mrs. Figgins. They seemed so sweet and quiet when we would see them getting their mail," Sam chuckled.

Silence fell and they looked at each other again.

"You look different, Cedes. You look like you did before. You are looking at me like you used to."

Mercedes was quiet for a beat before asking, "What happened to us, Sam?"

He looked down at his hands and she longed to pull him down to lie next to her. She reached out to do just that and he looked like he was going to let her, but the moment was lost when his cell rang loudly in his pocket.

"Shit," he said as he stood up and fished it out. He looked at the caller and declined the call.

"I should go, Mercedes. I know this is all really hard for you to take in, but it will get easier when you spend time with the kids, talk to your friends, and get back to the house."

"Will you be there? At the house?"

"No, I've been living in my own place for the last 5 months."

She closed her eyes.

"Oh, okay. When will I see you?"

"I'll bring the kids home when you get discharged," Sam put on his baseball cap again and Mercedes started to panic. She didn't want him to leave.

"Sam, can you please just stay with me until I fall asleep?" She looked up at him.

"Yeah, of course I can." He went to pull up a chair. He sat next to her and she reached her hand out to him. She felt the exhaustion start to take hold of her body. He took her hand in his.

"This is home," she said as she drifted off into a deep sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or What Alice Forgot or any of its characters.

**Thanks for reading everyone! I always love hearing what you think, so thanks so much for the reviews!**

Mercedes felt the sun warming her face through the window of their tiny bedroom. She reached over instinctively to her left side to wrap her arms around Sam, but reality came crashing down and she remembered where she was.

She wanted to go back to sleep and keep dreaming of him, but she needed to face her situation. She took in a deep breath and slowly blew it out and opened her eyes. Sam was sleeping in the chair next to her bed. She didn't dare move. She just watched his slow breathing and his crossed arms rising and falling with each breath. His face looked older, but she was still amazed that he was even more striking than he had been in his 20's. He had stubble growing in that complimented his features. She looked at his left hand and his wedding band was absent too. When she looked back up at his face, he was awake and watching her.

"You stayed," Mercedes said to him softly.

He sat up and leaned forward in the chair with his elbows resting on his knees.

"I did," Sam replied while still looking at her. Mercedes felt like he was trying to figure her out, but he knew her better than anyone.

"I'm glad you did." Their eyes were still locked until he blinked and stood up to stretch. With that, the mood in the room seemed to shift and Sam went into business mode.

"I think it would be better for the kids to see you at home instead of bringing them here. It will be strange for everyone. Trey seems to understand, but Laila just thinks you bumped your head and forgot a few things. She doesn't realize it's as if you don't know them."

"What are they like, Sam?"

He seemed startled by the question, but as he started to talk about them a huge and proud grin broke out across his face.

"Trey is like you: stubborn, smart, dry sense of humor. He loves the Titans, he's the star of his basketball team – he got his height from me, thank God," Mercedes resisted an eye roll. Sam continued, "Laila is just a charmer. She's six going on sixteen. She's funny, sweet and feisty. They are the best."

Mercedes couldn't help but feel her love swell seeing him as a proud father.

"They sound just perfect, Sam."

"Well, we think they are," he replied with a grin, "I really do have to go, but call me later when you find out about when you can leave and I will get ready to bring the kids. Quinn said she would take you home."

"I will," Mercedes said, trying to keep the sound of her voice steady. Inside, her body was beginning to react to his words in alarm. Calm yourself down Mercedes. She began to take deep breaths and her heart rate started to return to a steady pace. She could not panic every time Sam had to leave.

"So, I have heard from multiple people that you are now a famous country star."

Sam looked down with his trademark bashful smile that she knew so well and shoved his hands into his pockets. His reaction made her smile because she knew that was exactly how he was going to respond as the words were leaving her mouth.

"Sam, I always knew you would be a star. It was just a matter of when. Did the song we wrote together make it on any of your albums?"

"'Strumming Your Love' went number one and was the song that launched my career."

Mercedes was shocked. She thought back to the night they wrote that song:

_There was a lightning storm that night and the power had been knocked out. Their plans of eating pizza and playing video games were dashed. _

"_Okay, plan number two," Sam said and grabbed her hand and the pizza and started for the bedroom._

"_Sam! We are not eating this pizza in our bed."_

"_Shh, Cedes. Just follow your husband's lead, okay?"_

"_When I do that, I always end up naked with you on top of me."_

"_Is that such a bad thing, gorgeous?" Sam asked and dropped her hand to give her a smack on the ass._

_Mercedes laughed, "No it's not, but I need to eat, Sam!"_

"_Just wait right here," he said when they got into the room. He put down the pizza, gave her a quick kiss and left. He came back a few minutes later with a blanket, a pack of beer, two plates and a lighter. He opened the blanket in front of Mercedes and she saw he had gathered all of her scented candles from around the apartment. _

"_Sam, you are forever a romantic," she smiled as she helped him put the candles out around the room._

"_You know it." He began to light the candles and she sat down opening their beers and putting the slices on their plates. After all the candles were lit, he came sat down on the blanket with her. _

"_Cheers," she said and they clinked their bottles together. _

"_So what do you think about having kids?" Sam asked._

_Mercedes almost spit out her beer, "Sam, what? I want to have kids, but we've only been married a year. I want to wait at least a few more years."_

"_Uh huh, we'll see about that," Sam said to an eye rolling Mercedes._

_They ate and drank a couple more beers and a couple of hours later, Sam had his guitar out and they were making up hilarious songs about their bosses that they couldn't stand. In the middle of it, Sam started strumming a tune on his guitar that sounded really good. When he finished it, they both looked up at each other in startled surprise._

"_Sam, that sounded really good. Can you play it again?"_

"_It did…" he said in a distracted voice as the wheels in his mind were turning thinking of lyrics that could go with the melody that he was now playing over and over on the guitar._

_Mercedes started to hum along and they looked at each other in the candlelight letting the magic of the tune sweep over them._

"_Strumming Your Love," Mercedes said._

_Sam stopped playing and stared at her. _

"_That's perfect Cedes. We need a pen and paper."_

_Mercedes got up and ran to the living room and grabbed two pads of paper and two pens and ran back to the room. She threw Sam's at him while she sat down with hers and started writing before all of her ideas left her mind. She looked up and Sam was writing furiously too._

_They stayed up for hours sharing their lyrics and going back and forth until they had their perfect song._

Mercedes smiled remembering that night. To her, it was only a year ago, in reality it was eleven.

"Sam, that makes me incredibly happy. I can't believe our song went so big!" Mercedes said beaming.

Sam smiled at her and looked like he was going to say something, but decided against it.

"I'll see you later, Mercedes."

"Bye, Sam."

She watched him put on his cap and pick up his phone from the side table and put it in his pocket. She leaned forward expecting their usual quick kiss good-bye, but he had turned and was walking towards the door. He looked back and waved to her before opening the door and silently closing it behind him.

"I'm getting my husband back," Mercedes said to herself in her now empty hospital room.

She spent the morning getting checked by her personal doctor who came to see her after getting a call from Sam. Mercedes preferred Dr. Cullen over this Dr. St. James, but she would do what she needed to do to get out of this hospital.

She answered all of their questions and didn't tell them any more than she had to about not remembering things. She still had a headache, but she played it down. She promised she would come in weekly for the next month to see Dr. St. James so he could monitor her progress. Feeling satisfied that she was okay to be discharged, she was told she could leave as early as that afternoon.

Mercedes tried to hide her smile and thanked them for all of their help. When they left her room, she called Quinn and asked if she could pick her up later and then she hopped in the shower. She put on her clothes she wore yesterday and sat on the bed with her phone.

She opened it and looked through all of the pictures. Most of them were of Trey and Laila: Trey playing basketball, Laila dressed up as a ninja wearing a tiara, the both of them fighting with lightsabers. She stopped and stared at one of herself holding the both of them on her lap, all three of them in the middle of a fit of laughter. She continued to scroll. There was a picture of that Asian lady she saw in that memory when she first came to yesterday. They were hugging each other with their cheeks pressed against one another with huge smiles. There were multiple pictures of the two of them together.

"Who is this?" Mercedes said out loud. They were obviously close, why hadn't she come to see her at the hospital?

She went back to looking and there were some of Quinn. There was a picture of Mercedes at some kind of banquet sitting at a table with a bunch of snotty looking women. Another one looked like she was at a country club where she was sitting next to a small brunette and they were smiling, but Mercedes noticed that her own smile didn't reach her eyes.

She kept looking for pictures of Sam and finally she found one of him laughing with Trey on his shoulders and Laila hanging off of his leg. She smiled looking at the joy on his face, Mercedes had always known he would be a great father.

Exiting out of the pictures, she went through her calendar. Mercedes was shocked at how full it was. Each day was occupied with things almost every hour. There were board meetings, meetings with names of people she didn't know, school things, community things. When did she have time to just be with her family?

"Hi Cedes," she heard Quinn's voice from the doorway.

"Qunnie! Thanks for coming to get me. I'm starving, can we stop for burgers on the way home?"

Quinn laughed, "Burgers? You are a vegetarian now!"

Mercedes looked at Quinn like she was crazy.

"There is no way in hell I am a vegetarian. I love my burgers. Joe's Famous Burger Shack? Come on."

"I'm just telling you that you haven't eaten meat for the past two years. So if we are stopping by Joe's get ready for your stomach to have an adjustment period tonight."

"Fine, I'll deal with the consequences."

"Okay," Quinn said laughing, "I like this new, well, old you. I guess we need to wait for them to come in and do some paperwork and we are set to go."

Mercedes couldn't help but wonder what kind of person she had turned out to be. She was separated from Sam, Quinn said they had drifted, she didn't know when she saw her kids with her busy schedule and she didn't eat burgers. Family had always been the most important aspect of her life, and from the outside looking in, it seemed as though she had lost sight of this.

The nurse came in to bring her the discharge paperwork and she quickly filled it out and gave it back. The nurse lingered for a bit blushing until Mercedes gave her a smile.

"Mrs. Evans, I just wanted to tell you that your husband's music helped get me though a lot of hard times in the past few years. I guess I just wanted to ask if you could pass that along to him." The nurse finished shyly.

"Of course I can. I am so happy to hear his music has touched you," Mercedes said as she drew her into a hug. "What is your name?"

"Sharon. Thank you Mrs. Evans."

"I'm Mercedes, Mrs. Evans is my mother-in-law!" Mercedes laughed.

Quinn was watching her thoughtfully and smiled when she saw Mercedes catch her eye.

"Let's go Quinn. I need Joe's and then, I guess, home," the truth of her words hit her. She did not actually know where home was and she would be meeting her children soon. Her excitement of getting out of the hospital was dimmed a little by nerves that were now coursing through her body. Deep breaths. She had a feeling this would be her mantra from now on.

"Let's do it," Quinn responded.

Mercedes let Quinn take the lead since she had no idea what her car looked like or where it was parked. They came up to a sleek black BMW SUV and Quinn took out a small shiny black remote and swiped her finger along the right side. Mercedes heard the car doors unlock. She got into the passenger seat while Quinn walked around the back to get into the driver's seat. She started the car but Mercedes could hardly tell, it was so quiet.

"This is a nice car," she said in awe looking around at all the gadgets and sinking into the comfortable leather seat.

"Yes it is. You custom designed it."

"Oh. Wow."

Mercedes remembered Sam wanted her to let him know when she was discharged from the hospital, so she took out her phone to call him.

"I need to call Sam –" Mercedes was interrupted by the car speaking back to her.

"Hello Mercedes. Calling Sam" a pleasant voice said to her from the speakers and the car was filled with ringing.

She looked at Quinn in shock and Quinn just laughed.

"Hello?" Sam answered. She heard a woman talking in the background of his line.

"What the hell," Mercedes said to Quinn quietly but she only kept her eyes on the road.

"Hi Sam, it's Mercedes."

She heard him moving to another room before he answered.

"Hi Cedes. Are you going to be able to get out soon?"

"I'm already out. Quinn and I are going to Joe's and then she's going to take me to our – she's going to take me home."

Sam laughed, "You're going to Joe's?"

"Yes we are. And apparently I haven't had a burger for years, but that's about to change."

"Okay," Sam said with a smile in his voice.

"Okay," Mercedes responded. She began to think of his lips and how much she longed to kiss them.

After a few seconds of silence, Quinn cleared her throat.

Sam must have been in a reverie too because he coughed and started clearing his throat as well before fumbling the words out that he would bring the kids home in a few hours. Then he said bye and disconnected.

Mercedes turned to Quinn, "Who was that woman?"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or What Alice Forgot or any of its characters.

**Thank you to everyone for reading this fic. As always, I love reading your comments and questions about where you think the characters are going. It's truly great. **

**Also, to my ladies: Anni (jericho2k - amazing author of The Wedding Planner and Chord and the Great Chicken Caper), Shoetingstar (wonderful author of If You Were Here), Mocha, Vangie, Lady B, Riga, Ladystardust (who has been so supportive since I first started Six Months), and my girl, Czech. Thanks so much ladies, you fill my days with laughter.**

"All I know is that her name is Gwen. She works at his record company and apparently she has been after him for some time. I don't think they are dating, but she wants to."

"What? He's married!" Mercedes shouted.

"Some women don't care. Your separation has been very quiet, you and Sam still go to events together since you both haven't decided if you guys are officially going to get a divorce or not. But since she works closely with Steve, she found out and offered him emotional support." She finger quoted the last two words.

"Bitch," Mercedes cursed her. "Who's Steve?"

"He's produced all of Sam's albums. He took him under his wing from the beginning. Gwen is his assistant."

Mercedes took in this new information decided to wait to talk to Sam about her before jumping to conclusions.

"Quinn, did you marry Puck?"

She looked at Mercedes and smiled, "Yep, married nine years now."

"I'm so glad, Quinn. He fell in love with you the minute we walked into his restaurant together. How about kids?"

Quinn closed her eyes briefly and shook her head.

"No, we tried for years and could never get pregnant. So last year we just decided to stop with the In vitro, watching the calendar for when I was going to ovulate, going to naturopaths all over Kentucky. It just became too exhausting and it was putting a burden on our marriage."

Mercedes reached over to squeeze her friend's shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, Quinn."

Quinn wiped a tear away that was threatening to fall and smiled sadly.

"Don't be sorry. I guess some people were just not meant to have children."

Mercedes shook her head. Ever since high school Quinn talked about how good a mother she was going to be since hers had been so awful. She had names picked out and wanted a loud house full of children. When she told Mercedes that she wanted at least four, she had thought she was crazy. In her mind, Quinn was always the one who was going to be a mother.

She wished she could bring her friend into a loving hug, but considering it wouldn't be the safest thing to do, she settled for grabbing hold of her hand and resting her head on her shoulder. Quinn leaned her head onto the top of Mercedes', keeping her water-filled eyes on the road.

"And guess what street we are coming up to now," Quinn announced to lighten the mood.

Mercedes squeezed her hand and let go.

"I'd say we are coming up on Fifth where we will turn right and Joe's will be there on the left."

Quinn smiled and did exactly as Mercedes had stated.

Mercedes turned to watch the store fronts go by. She was surprised that a lot of them looked the same as how she remembered them, and it was comforting. She looked over to the left and there was Joe's. A little farther down the street was the apartment that she and Sam had lived in.

They found a parking spot and walked across the street to the restaurant. They opened the doors and her stomach growled loudly when all of those familiar smells came up to greet her. They grabbed a booth and the waitress came over to take their order.

"I haven't called my parents," Mercedes confessed to Quinn, "I didn't want to worry them and I have been so messed up by everything, that I couldn't do it quite yet. I'm going to call them tonight or tomorrow. Quinn, they are still alive, right?"

"Yes! Of course they are. Do you really think your parents are going to not live until they are at least 150? They are more active than Puck and I are."

Mercedes laughed.

"But they moved to Florida five years ago when you grandma had a stroke," Mercedes' hand flew up to her mouth, "She is still alive too. They just live with her now so she doesn't have to go to a nursing home."

"My grandma is something else," she said shaking her head, "Where do you and I work?"

"Well, Puck's restaurant has turned into a state-wide chain, so I manage the business side of things. You left Cadenza after Laila was born. You are technically a stay-at-home mom, but you do anything but – "

Quinn cut herself off when she saw the wounded expression on Mercedes' face.

"What happened? Did you remember something?"

"No. I just, I'm afraid of finding out the type of person I have become."

"Why would you have that as a fear, Cedes? You have an active life, great kids, beautiful house."

"That sounds nice, but what I see is a woman who has lost her way. Quinn, I have a broken marriage. I looked at my calendar and it is booked solid. When do I see my children? You said we are not close like we have been since we were teenagers. It just does not seem like a happy life to me."

Quinn nodded her head.

"We had a big fight a year ago. I was basically saying the same thing you are telling me now. Granted, it probably wasn't the wisest thing to say at the time, because I was pissed. It all started with Tina." Mercedes gave her a questioning look at the name.

"It's still so strange that everything is cut off from you and just stuck in your brain somewhere. Do you remember any parts of the last decade at all?"

Mercedes shook her head, "Well, when I'm alone or about to fall asleep, little pieces of memory will come to me. But it's so brief, I don't know if it has truly happened or if it's just my imagination."

"Did the doctors say if they think you'll get your memory back?"

"Yes, eventually. They're hoping being back in my daily life will help trigger my brain and one memory will lead to another and eventually I've got it all back."

"Okay, well I'll help you in any way you need," Quinn gave her an encouraging smile, "So, Tina Chang. You guys became really close over the last couple of years, but I didn't think she was good for you. Actually, neither did Sam. You guys would fight a lot about her."

"Did I break off our friendship?"

"No, but she and her family packed up and left town about nine months ago."

Their conversation was interrupted by the waitress coming over with their meals. Mercedes wanted to ask Quinn more about Tina, but her mouth was salivating for the juicy burger now sitting in front of her.

"Let's catch up on happy things," Mercedes said while pouring the ketchup onto her plate to dip her fries in, "Has Vandy won a national championship yet?"

"No!" Quinn almost shouted. They spent the rest of the meal laughing and Quinn bringing Mercedes current on need to know events.

"I'm so full," Mercedes said as they were walking back to the car, "I cannot believe Sam wrote a song called 'Troutymouth Blues'! What the hell?"

"Don't ask me. You had the same reaction when he first played it for you," Quinn was laughing while they got into the car.

"So, where do we live?"

"Belle Meade."

Mercedes did a double take at her friend.

"Cedes, you couldn't think I was driving you back to that tiny apartment you guys you to live in!"

They drove across town and up into the hills overlooking the city. The houses were beautiful and on enormous properties. Finally Quinn started to slow down and put on her signal to turn right up a driveway.

"You ready?" Quinn looked at Mercedes who just nodded in response. Mercedes was full of nervous energy. They drove up the curvy uphill driveway for a while before they reached the top. Mercedes drew in a shocked breath when their house came into view. It was a beautiful sprawling French style estate.

"Oh my God, Quinn!"

"I know, you guys have a beautiful home."

She drove around to the front of the house and stopped the car. Mercedes sat there for a moment staring before looking back at Quinn, "I guess we should go in."

They both got out of the car and walked up to the front door. Quinn gave Mercedes her keys and she put it in the door knob and turned. The foyer was formally decorated with soaring ceilings. They walked through to the living room, which was just as immaculate.

"It doesn't seem like anyone lives here," Mercedes said in a bewildered state, "It feels like it's a model home and we are just walking through." They spent the next 10 minutes walking around to all the parts of the house and Mercedes still felt as though it were too perfect to be properly lived in. Their bedrooms were the only rooms she felt featured their personalities. She loved their bedroom: it was large with huge windows that looked out onto their property. The colors were warm and welcoming. There was a huge bouquet of flowers on one of the dressers. Next to the bouquet, she saw a jewelry box. Mercedes practically ran up to it saying to herself, "Please be in here," while she lifted the lid. Right there in one of the small sections were her engagement and wedding rings. She let out the breath she had not realized she had been holding and slipped them onto her finger.

She turned around to look at her friend, "I'm going to get him back, Quinn."

"I know," she responded smiling, "Are you okay being here on your own for a bit before Sam comes with the kids? I just think it would be better if it were just the family."

"I will be okay. I should probably figure out where things are, right?"

Quinn looked at her to make sure she meant it, "Alright, I'm going to call Puck to come pick me up then."

After Puck came and got Quinn, she wandered around a little while before finding herself back in their bedroom. She went into her closet to find something to change into. She couldn't find anything that looked comfortable until she saw a Vanderbilt tee folded in the back and a black pair of yoga pants.

"That's more like it," she said smiling to herself and throwing her hair up into a ponytail.

As she walked out of the closet to go relax on the bed, she glanced at the pretty bouquet of flowers again. This time, she saw a small card poking through the middle. She went over and plucked the card out that had her name written on the envelope and read:

"Mercedes, I am so happy you finally let me come over and cook for you. I look forward to seeing you this weekend. Yours, Marcus"

She threw the card on the ground in shock. Who the hell was Marcus? And why would she ever bring him into their house? She stared down at it as if it were evil, then picked it up again tearing it up and going into the bathroom to throw it away.

"How could you?" she scolded herself.

Just then, the doorbell rang and she nearly jumped out of her skin. She glanced at herself in the mirror quickly before running down the stairs. Her heart was racing as she opened the door. She didn't even get a chance to see Laila's face because she launched herself at her mother, wrapping her little arms around her waist and burying her face into her stomach. Mercedes looked up at Sam with a shocked smile and he looked back at her warmly. Then she looked down at Trey who was standing next to Sam looking uncertain about what he should do. Mercedes put her arm out to bring him into a hug, and he stepped forward slowly and went into her arm. He was tall - already up to her shoulders.

"Mommy, you need to be careful! You hit your head and had to go to the hospital. And now you are wearing your laundry clothes," Laila was talking a mile a minute and Mercedes burst out laughing.

"These are my laundry clothes?"

"Yes, you only wear them when the clothes you like are being washed."

"Well, okay then! I guess today they are just making a special appearance."

Laila dissolved into giggles and then ran in the house, throwing her back pack by the foyer table. Trey was now standing to the side observing her. Mercedes had never really spent extended periods of time around kids, but she hoped her mothering instinct would just kick in.

"Hi Trey. You are so tall, you will be towering over me soon," she was trying. He smiled at her and said a quiet, thanks, then headed in the same direction as his sister.

"Bye guys!" Sam called to the kids from where he was standing on the outside step.

"What? You're not staying? Sam, stay for dinner."

"I don't usually come in when bringing the kids," he said.

"Come in! Unless you have someplace you need to be."

"I like how you look, Mercedes. I always told you I loved your face fresh like this and not with all of that make up."

Mercedes flushed and grabbed his hand to pull him inside.

"I'm going to make grilled cheese for their dinner because that's the only thing I know how to make, and I know you love them, so stay."

He came in and they took a few steps before they realized their hands were still locked together. They both looked down at their hands and then up to each other's eyes when they heard giggling. Sam let go of her hand and they looked towards the kitchen doorway and saw Laila's eyes peaking from around the corner. She laughed again and disappeared.

"They are beautiful, Sam. I can already tell she's just as feisty as you said. Trey seems nervous around me." She said quietly.

"He'll warm up. He's just not sure how to be right now. And the separation has been tough on him. He's taking it harder than Laila," Sam whispered back to her.

Mercedes nodded. Poor things. They walked into the kitchen together and the kids were already in front of the tv in the adjacent family room. She had seen beer in the fridge when she was exploring earlier, so she went and opened it to grab two bottles and she turned around and caught Sam staring at her backside. She raised her eyebrow at him with a big smile. His ears turned red and he was suddenly very interested in the grout on the counter. Mercedes cheered herself inside while giving him his beer.

They spent the next couple of hours playing Life a couple of times with the kids. Trey was laughing and Laila was giddy with excitement. Sam was losing and had the worst job out of all of them. They were all making fun of him until he won the lotto and he jumped up and down and punched the air.

"Daddy!" Laila shouted as she jumped with him and onto his lap when he finally sat down again.

"Okay, I need to make you guys dinner," Mercedes said getting up, "Trey, do you want to help me?"

He looked up at her with surprise, "Sure!"

She let him take the lead and choose how much cheese would go in each of their sandwiches and what shape to cut them in. He was beaming when he said, "Mom, you are so much better this way!" She stopped short while getting ready to pour their milk.

"I'm sorry, mom. I didn't mean it."

"No," she made sure to look him in his green eyes that were just like Sam's, "Thank you for that. It lets me know I need to throw in some more fun, okay?"

Trey smiled back, "Okay."

Sam had been watching their interaction and she looked at him and silently mouthed, "Am I a bitch?" He laughed and put his hand up doing the so-so movement. "I'm gonna kick your ass" she mouthed back. And they both laughed.

Dinner was nice and Laila kept saying she was so happy the whole family was together. Sam helped with bedtimes and by the time they were in their beds, Mercedes was exhausted.

"How the hell do I do this every day?" she said and collapsed onto the couch.

Sam went to the fridge and got another two beers and came to sit with her.

"Thanks," she said and there was a heavy silence that followed.

There were so many things she wanted to ask him, but she just didn't know where to start.

"Sam, this all seems so natural and right. I don't understand what happened."

He looked at her and leaned back into the couch and began to talk.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or What Alice Forgot or any of its characters.

**You guys are the greatest. I love reading all of your insightful and funny comments. Thanks so much for reading!**

**And to my girls – you know who you are: Xoxoxo.**

"Mercedes, this is really strange for me," Sam said looking at his beer, "You don't remember the last ten years, but I do. You don't remember all of the fights, all the things we said to each other. I know it has to be so scary for you to not know what has happened since we were 24, I know that. I'm just really confused right now." It seemed as if Sam had said this all in one breath, like he needed to get everything out before he talked himself out of it.

Mercedes looked at him and could see the conflict in his eyes.

"I know, Sam. I'm sorry. I don't know why or how I have changed, but I was telling Quinn earlier that I feel like I've lost my way."

Sam had been resting the bottle on his leg and tearing the label off like he always did, trying to get the whole thing off in one piece. It was these little familiar things that gave some comfort to Mercedes. He looked over at her when she said the last part and ended up ripping the label.

"That's how I have felt over the last few years. I felt like we both did, actually."

"Did we fight all the time?"

"We did before, but that was better than what it was like the year up until I moved out."

"What do you mean?"

He looked at her with such sadness in his eyes that she wished she could make him forget too.

"We just stopped talking. We lived side by side here, but like strangers. I have never felt so shitty in my life."

She reached out to him and rested her hand on top of his.

"You're wearing your rings," he said quietly.

"It felt so strange not to have them on. I kept grabbing my finger to play with them and they weren't there."

He chuckled, "I do that all the time. I go to twist my ring and get skin instead."

"Did something specific happen? Please tell me neither one of us cheated. I don't think my heart could handle that." She took back her hand twisted it in her other one with nervousness.

"No! No, neither one of us cheated. I just always felt like you resented me for you leaving your job after Laila was born. I was gone a lot when the kids were little, I have always regretted that. I was the absentee dad. It was when I had to tour a lot and I had to leave you and the kids alone so much. At first you were so supportive, but of course it became hard for you that I was away so often," he paused to take a sip of his beer, "When you got pregnant with Laila, your career at Cadenza was about to take off, but I was not here enough to help out. So we decided you would leave. I didn't realize until it was too late that you didn't really want that. Mercedes, I honestly thought you did. You said you didn't want strangers raising our kids, and I agreed. You let that resentment you felt towards me stew and you never said anything to me until years later when it was too late. It sounds like I'm putting all the blame on you, but I'm not. I know I did and said things that I'm not proud of. We were both at fault in different ways."

Mercedes sat staring at the floor taking it all in. It had been really hard not to interrupt him and pepper him with questions about why didn't they just talk frankly about it. That was one thing they always prided themselves on: brutal honesty. Sam was watching her waiting for her to respond.

"I guess I'm just shocked that I was not completely honest about my feelings. I can tell you anything, Sam."

He slowly nodded his head, "I don't know at exactly what point we lost that."

The looked at one another sadly.

"But Sam, you are my forever," Mercedes said their saying to him.

He closed his eyes and when he opened them again she could see they were watery.

"Sam, is there a way we can start over? I know it's easy for me to ask you to do this since I don't know every fight, like you said. But I believe in us, and I know what we have is once in a lifetime. I see how we were as a family tonight, it was seamless."

"What happens when your memory comes back? When all of the anger you felt towards me comes rushing back? The way you look at me now, it's like you love me completely again and you haven't looked at me like that in so long."

"I can't tell you exactly what will happen, Sam, but I promise you that I will be honest with you about everything. I will be committed to our family. It's almost as though I got a second chance to make things right."

He was quiet as he thought about what she was proposing to him. It was so hard for her to not try to rush him into talking.

"I can't give you an answer right now, Cedes. It's so complicated and I need some time to figure things out," he was watching for her reaction, "I would love nothing more than for our family be together and happy, but I just need some time."

Mercedes thought hearing him say this would devastate her, but it didn't. There was hope for them, and she would give him the time he needed. It was probably a good idea that she have some time as well to figure out her new life.

"I understand, Sam. Let's just take things day by day."

"Okay, day by day."

She wanted to ask him about; this Gwen, his career, the birth of their kids, Tina, so many things, but she knew they would get there.

Sam took a couple more swigs and sat forward on the couch.

"So tomorrow, are you okay taking the kids to school? They can tell you the directions, it's really close."

She was about to say there was no way she could do it, but she knew how to drive. And if it was close and they could tell her the way, she could handle it.

"Yes, I think I can do it. I need to start somewhere, right?"

He smiled at her, "That's right," he got up from the couch and stretched. She couldn't help but notice his shirt pull up and expose his still tight stomach. She unconsciously licked her lips before drawing her eyes away and standing up herself.

"Call me tomorrow if you get lost on your way back home."

"If it's as close as you say, I'd better not get lost. Plus I can look it up online, so don't worry about me."

He went to the kitchen and rinsed out his bottle before placing it in the sink. They both walked to the front door.

"I will call you tomorrow and make sure you haven't blown anything up."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," she said slapping his arm.

He opened the door and turned to face her, "It's really great to see you happy, Cedes."

She smiled and stepped towards him and took him into a hug. This time, he hugged her back.

"Good night, Sam."

"Night," he said and turned to walk down the stairs to his car. She waited until he was in his car and going down the driveway before she closed the door and locked it. Going room to room, she turned off each of the lights before going upstairs. She peaked in on both kids in their rooms. Laila was sprawled out taking up her whole bed with the sheets and blankets kicked to the bottom. While Trey was sleeping soundly on his back with his sheets pulled up to his chest letting out a soft snore.

Then she walked down the hall to their bedroom. She glared at the flowers before going into the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth.

She found her pajama drawer and put on some cotton bottoms and a tank before going to the bed and opening the sheets and getting in. She was just about to start going over their conversation in her head when she passed out from sheer exhaustion.

"Mommy, mommy! It's time to get up! I dressed myself, and Trey is making me cereal. But you are still in bed and we can't be late for school."

Mercedes opened her eyes to see Laila inches from her face; her big green eyes watching in anticipation of her mother waking up.

She reached up and put her little warm hand on Mercedes' cheek, "Hi, mommy," she said sweetly.

"Good morning Laila," she said back and put her own hand over her daughter's. They stayed like that for a moment before Laila turned to run out of the door yelling at Trey to give them each the same amount of cereal. Mercedes laughed at them and sat up.

"Need more sleep," she said to herself. She had never been a morning person, so this would be interesting. She called down to the kids to ask if they were okay while she showered and they both yelled back yes. So she hopped in the shower for a quick soap and rinse off; then found some jeans, tank and a black and white striped tunic to wear. She opened drawers in their bathroom until she found her makeup.

"What the hell?" there were so many different brands of the same thing, she was shaking her head. She found mascara and rouge, her two favorite pieces of makeup, and applied them quickly before heading downstairs.

Both of the kids were dressed in their school uniforms, except she noticed Laila's white button down shirt had only two buttons done. She was scarfing down her cereal in stark contrast to Trey eating his slowly while he studied the word find on the back of the box.

"Good morning guys," she said while she headed into the kitchen to get her own bowl and spoon before joining them at the table.

"Mom, you usually have a protein shake," Trey told her.

She pulled a face, "Really? Your cereal looks much better. What time do you guys have to be at school?"

"8:05," Trey said.

Mercedes looked at the clock and it said 7:50.

"Oh shit! I mean," she looked back and forth at her kid's shocked faces, "Okay, please forget what I just said! We need to GO. How long does it take to get there?" She had already stood up and was looking around.

"You said shit," Laila said in wonder.

"Don't repeat that!" Mercedes said already feeling like a bad mom so early in the morning.

"We need our lunches, mom," Trey said.

"No time! Do you guys have a cafeteria there or something?"

Both of the kids had gotten up and they were all making their way to the front door.

"There is one, but you don't like us to eat the food from there. Today is pizza day and it would be so cool if we could have it," Trey was saying as his smile grew.

"Yes, you can," Mercedes grabbed her purse from the foyer table and the keys and put on her shoes that were at the front. The kids were sitting putting on their shoes when Mercedes saw Laila's unbuttoned shirt again and fixed it. She did not want them late to school on her "first" day with them.

Trey told her how to get there and Sam wasn't kidding when he said it was close. She gave them money for lunch and said good bye as they hopped out of the car and ran up to the front entrance. After pulling out of the school's property, she figured she would drive around a little bit until she found a coffee shop. She pushed a button that started the radio and then hit scan to find something she liked. At the third scanned station, Sam's voice filled the car. She almost swerved into the curb trying to stop the radio from leaving the station. His smooth and soulful voice brought tears to her eyes as he sang an acoustic ballad. She was listening to the poetic lyrics when the song faded away and ringing filled the car.

"Marcus Avery calling," the female voice said to her.

"NO!" Mercedes shouted.

"Accepting call," the car said in betrayal to its owner.

"Fuck," Mercedes said under her breath.

"Hello? Mercedes?" a deep voice said to her.

She felt like she was cheating on Sam just hearing him say her name. This was not a person she wanted to be talking to right now. Maybe he was just a friend. But a friend that sent flowers? Did he know about her fall? Probably not.

"Mercedes? Are you there?"

"Hello," she said in a very business-like voice.

"Oh good, I thought I lost you."

You did, she thought.

"Are you okay? I heard you had to go to the hospital, but no details. I've left you several voicemails."

"I'm okay," she said tentatively. She didn't want to have this conversation on the phone.

"That's great! So, I just wanted to confirm plans with you this weekend. I was thinking you could come over around 6 on Saturday –"

"I'm sorry, I just can't."

"Um, oh, okay. I guess we can figure out another time," she heard someone come into the room and she swore they said Principal Avery. No way, she thought to herself.

"Okay, I need to go, but we will figure out another time. I will see you this afternoon at carline," he said to her.

"Okay, bye," she said in a shocked daze. There was no way she had had a date with her children's school principal. She needed to talk to Quinn.

"Call Quinn," she said to the traitorous car phone.

"Hello Mercedes. Calling Quinn."

"Whatever," she said back.

The phone rang a few times before Quinn answered in a rushed voice.

"Hi Cedes. I want to know how everything went last night, but I'm just about to step into a meeting. Can I call you a little later?"

"Sure! Of course. Talk to you later."

"Bye!"

She drove for a few more blocks and saw an adorable bakery called Klaine's Patisserie. She found a spot right in front and got out. When she stepped out of her car, she immediately smelled the delicious scent of croissants and sweets wafting from the shop.

She pulled open the door and a friendly man with perfect hair greeted her from behind the counter.

"Good morning, gorgeous. How have you and your fabulousness never stepped foot in my bakery before? I have to tell you, our croissants have turned out to be pure perfection today."

Mercedes laughed and liked him instantly.

"Well, I have to try one of them now. I'll take a croissant and a coffee with room for cream, please."

"Yes, ma'am. Are you going to stay and keep me company or is this to go?"

"After that greeting, there's no way I'm taking it to go!"

He smiled at her, "I'm Kurt."

"Mercedes," she said and extended her hand.

It was a slow morning, so Mercedes had pulled a bar stool up to the counter to chat with Kurt. He and his partner, Blaine, had moved there from a small town outside of Springfield a year ago and opened shop. It was still slow going, but he was confident it would turn around soon.

They were just laughing over a repeat bitchy customer when he stopped talking immediately and said under his breath, "Speak of the devil."

Mercedes looked over to the opening door and saw the small brunette she had seen in the picture with her on her phone. Before she had a chance to say anything to Kurt, the woman locked eyes with Mercedes and came rushing towards her.

"Oh, Mercedes! I heard about your accident. I was going to stop by your house this afternoon and bring you and the kids something eat," she turned to Kurt briefly, "Non-fat latte."

"So is it true you don't remember anything from the last 10 years? I just can't imagine. I mean, obviously something is different: someone didn't take the time to properly get ready before heading out this morning," she said while shaking her finger at her.

This bitch, Mercedes thought.

"I'm sorry, but I don't remember who you are," she said out loud instead.

She let out a grating laugh, "Oh my God, it's true. I'm Rachel. We are very close friends and we serve together on the Belle Meade Country Club board. All of our kids go to Exeter Academy. I thought they were exaggerating about you, but you don't remember anything!" She actually seemed excited that she had firsthand knowledge so she could spread the gossip. There was no way she was friends with this woman, especially not "very close friends".

Mercedes stole a glance and Kurt who was making the latte. Kurt looked back and gave her a subtle eye roll.

"Yep, it's true. I don't remember shit."

Rachel let out an audible "oh" of surprise that gave Mercedes a small bit of satisfaction, until Rachel recovered dropped a bomb on her.

"So, I guess you don't remember your best friend, Tina's, husband trying to sleep with you," she said with a smug grin at Mercedes' look of shocked dismay.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or What Alice Forgot or any of its characters.

**Thank you guys, again. It makes me so happy to hear your takes on the chapters and helps guide the tone of the next one when I'm not sure which direction to go in. I love getting notices of your reviews, favorite story and alerts. Thanks for reading!**

**Lots of love to my Rileystreet/Samcedes forum girls! Xoxoxo.**

Mercedes couldn't speak. She was too shocked by what Rachel had said to her to respond. Thankfully, her new friend, Kurt, did.

"Thank you for that. I'm sure that helps your friend immensely, at this time when she could really use people who care about her near. You can take your latte today free of charge, just please leave now."

Rachel was looking at Kurt with her mouth hanging open.

"Excuse me? How dare you speak to me like that! I will never come to your bakery again, and I will tell all of my friends to avoid this horrific place as well."

"I take it back, I'm drinking your latte, and you can just get to stepping on out of here."

"Mercedes, I will call you later," Rachel said as she was giving a death glare to Kurt. Then she spun on her heels and stomped to the door and left.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Kurt asked Mercedes who was staring at the floor.

"It can't be true. But then what if that is why they moved?" she was speaking more to herself than to Kurt.

"Mercedes, I know we just met and I'm not sure what is happening in your life, but I have seen people like Rachel all of my life. I would take what she said with a grain of salt. And also, she said he _tried_ to sleep with you, which means it didn't happen."

She looked up at Kurt and felt so relieved that this man she had only met an hour ago was with her.

"Thank you, Kurt. The only people who I really know right now are my husband and my best friend from high school. Everyone else, I'm meeting for the first time, even my own children."

"Take it day by day, honey. It will all work itself out."

"Day by day, that's exactly what I told Sam, my husband, last night," she said smiling gratefully at Kurt.

A few more people came into the bakery and Mercedes decided it was time for her to get going.

"Will you be here tomorrow?" she asked him.

"Absolutely. I will bake a special treat just for you. Remember: day by day." He smiled at her and made a show of taking a big swig of the latte while winking before turning to his new customers and warmly greeting them. Mercedes laughed and turned to leave.

Her mind was racing a mile a minute. Kurt was right; the witch had said "tried". She needed to get home and focus on trying to remember things and write down all of the questions she had. Mercedes got into her car and drove home, proud of herself for only going the wrong way twice.

When she got in the front door, she took off her shoes and fished her phone out of her purse before going into their office to get a pad of paper and a pen. It was a beautiful morning, so instead of sitting at the kitchen table as she had planned, she went through the French doors to sit at the patio table. Their patio was made of beautiful grey stone and it overlooked a massive grassy back yard with trees and flowers scattered throughout.

"This is beautiful," she mused. She focused on the back yard and tried to get back the full memory of the quick fragment she had when she had come to the other day after falling. Nothing came to her.

She took the pen and began to write down questions she had: What happened really happened with Tina? What is my status with Marcus? What is Sam's status with Gwen? What do I do with herself every day when the kids are in school? Mercedes also needed to make sure to spend periods of time each day trying to focus in the quiet house and try to remember things.

First, it was time to call her parents. She was used to talking to her them a couple times a week, and she hoped she still did. She picked up her Nokia "Silver Sliver" (as it was called according the back of it) phone and opened recently contacted. Her parent's names were on the list, thank God, but she hadn't called them for a couple of weeks. She pulled up her mom's cell and tapped her finger on the dial button.

It rang four times before there was an answer.

"Hello?" her mother's soothing voice in her ear gave her and instant feeling of comfort and she was surprised to feel tears come to her eyes and a lump form in her throat.

"Hi mom," she said trying to disguise the emotion in her voice.

"Well, hi there honey! How are you?"

"I'm good. How are you and dad doing?"

"Oh you know, just enjoying the sun down here. We just started golfing this past week and I think I'm a natural! Your father on the other hand, swung like he was reverse chopping wood." Mercedes smiled at her mom's hearty laugh she had exploded into.

"That's great, mom. Maybe you guys can come up here and golf at the country club sometime soon. I would love to see you both."

There was a long silence before her mom finally answered.

"Honey, you know your father won't come up there until you work things out with Sam or make a final decision on which way you guys are going to go with your marriage. Please, don't cut me off like you always do when we get on this subject. He feels, well we both feel, that you both stopped working on your marriage when it got tough. It is not fair to those children. Have you both sat down and had a constructive conversation yet about what you are going to do?"

Mercedes was taken aback, but she shouldn't have been. She knew that her parents did not take the vows of marriage before God lightly.

She thought back to when Sam had asked them for their blessing for Mercedes' hand in marriage. Sam told her they had looked at each other and then her father had told him they were each going to talk to him separately. Her mom had put on a stern face in front of her dad, but once he left the room go into the kitchen, Sam said she brought him in for a huge hug and silently cheered and then kissed him on both cheeks. But she had told him while she loved him and trusted him completely to marry her daughter, she thought they were too young. Sam gave her all the reasons why it would work out and promised her they would wait until after they graduated from college before actually having the wedding.

Sam's relief at her mom's reaction quickly turned to nervousness when he stood up to go and have the conversation with her dad. His hands had been so sweaty and he kept wiping them on his pants. When he got into the kitchen, her dad surprised him by doing exactly the same thing her mom did. He silently cheered and gave him big pats on the back. He told him quietly that he had always wished for a man with his character and integrity to marry his daughter and he couldn't be happier. And then he launched into the same speech her mom had given him about being too young.

He said the funniest part was when Sam and her dad had gone back into the living room where her mom was sitting and they both had put their stern faces back on and were looking at each other like they didn't approve, but what could they do. When he had told her the story after he had proposed to her, they had cracked up for days about her parents.

"No, mom. We haven't. But we will. I know this is so unfair for the kids. We will sit down and have a talk soon, I promise."

"Okay, Mercedes. I have to tell you that I hope you two remember how great you can be together. You just need to let go of the things you think are so important, but really aren't. When you are old like your father and I, you won't remember the arguments in detail like you do now, you will only remember how good it felt to have your soul mate next to you your whole life."

Mercedes closed her eyes, "I know, mom. Trust me, I know."

"Well, I have to say, something is different with you because you usually cut me off when I start talking like this. I'm glad you are listening to your mother! I can't wait to see the kids in a few weeks for Spring Break. Your dad and I have the whole week planned out!"

"Oh!" Mercedes was about to ask her what she was talking about, but recovered, "They are going to have the greatest time with their grandparents."

"It will give you and Sam some time too."

"Yes, it will," Mercedes smiled.

"You've got your big birthday party coming up next week! I can't believe my baby is turning 35!"

Mercedes had completely forgotten.

"Yes, Quinn and I are planning a pretty good party," she threw out there.

"Please give my love to Quinn. Okay, if I don't get off this phone, I'm going to be late picking up your dad at his yoga class."

Mercedes burst out laughing, "Yoga? Dad?" She couldn't stop laughing picturing her dad doing downward facing dog and tree pose.

"Yes, and it's really good for him!"

"Okay, mom. Tell him hi and I love him and also hi to Nana."

"I love you, honey. Talk to you soon."

Mercedes put the phone down and thought about what her mom had told her about them not coming up until she and Sam figured their marriage out. Tough love.

I wonder what Sam is doing, she thought. Maybe he would want to come over for lunch and she could ask him about Gwen.

She scrolled and found his name and dialed. It went to voicemail and she couldn't help but feel completely disappointed. She left him a message that it wasn't important but to call her back when he had a chance.

She spent the rest of the late morning and early afternoon opening doors trying to trigger a memory. It didn't work. Then she went back to the office and went through her desk calendar and files since she couldn't get into her computer because she didn't know the password. Finally, it was time to pick up the kids.

She drove the same route Trey had told her to go that morning and ended up getting there early. So she parked and walked up to the front doors where her kids had gone in earlier. She was surprised she was the only parent there so close to school letting out. She took out her phone and pretended to be busy looking at something, when she heard that same deep voice from earlier that morning saying her name.

"Hi Mercedes," a tall and handsome man who had an uncanny resemblance to Boris Kodjoe (one of her celebrity crushes in 2012) said while walking towards her.

"Hi…Marcus," she said tentatively wondering if this was in fact him.

"I'm sorry this weekend won't work out, I'm hoping we can make that crawfish étouffée at my house sometime next week," he said giving her a huge perfect smile.

"Marcus, I'm not sure how much you have heard about my accident, but I fell and hit my head pretty severely. I have been diagnosed with retrograde amnesia and I don't remember the last ten years. So I'm sorry, but I don't remember you."

He blinked a few times and didn't seem to know what to do what to do with his hands.

"Oh, wow," was all he could manage. Then the bell rang and she turned to look at the doors. She felt badly, but she had no feelings for him and no intention on building on what they were possibly starting before her accident.

She looked around and there were no other parents standing with her, but there was a huge line of almost identical looking SUVs and minivans waiting for their kids to come out.

"Am I doing this wrong?" she asked Marcus.

"What? Oh, well, kind of. You are supposed to just stay in the carline and wait for your kids to come out. Is there any way I can call you tomorrow night, when Sam has the kids, to talk?" She flinched when he had said Sam's name.

She really did not want to, but she thought it only fair to listen to what he had to say and put an official end to this. Whatever it was they had.

"Sure, that would be fine." She knew she was being a little curt, but he needed to see there was no future with them. She was married and should never have started something with him in the first place, even if she and Sam had been separated.

"Okay, thank you, Mercedes. I need to go greet the parents," he said as he gave her a sad look and turned to talk to some eager looking moms in their cars.

The kids started to come out and she saw Laila first. She was talking animatedly and had the attention of three other girls when she saw Mercedes and screamed, "Mommy!" and ran to her giving her a big hug.

"Hi Laila. Did you have a good day today?"

"I did! We learned about allergies and how it grows all over rocks and streams and is very slippery and slimy. I even _touched_ it!" she said proudly.

"Do you mean, algae?" Mercedes laughed. Laila just gave her a perplexed look like it was her mom that had it wrong. She just shrugged and went back to talking to her friends while they waited for Trey.

Trey came out shortly after engrossed in an intense conversation with two other boys and they had what looked like trading cards in their hands. He almost walked right past her, until she gently touched his shoulder.

"Hi Trey. I didn't realize I was supposed to stay in the car," Mercedes laughed.

"Oh, hi mom. Yeah, you're supposed to just sit in the car and we get in. That's okay though."

They said bye to their friends and walked to the car to go home. The kids seemed to have their routine down. When they got in the door, they took their backpacks to the kitchen table and got out their homework. Trey was doing math and Laila was practicing making her letters perfect. She was watching them when her phone rang. Caller id said it was Quinn.

"I'm just going to take this in the other room, okay guys?"

They grunted in response.

"Hi Quinn. How did your meeting go?"

"It was really good actually. We might be expanding our chain to North Carolina. Can you believe that?"

"Quinn! That's great! I'm so happy for you guys!"

"Me too. Okay, so how did it go last night?"

She told her everything and about how she had basically asked Sam to come back and how he said he needed some time. Then she told her about Kurt and the bitch, Rachel.

"I always hated that snobby little bitch."

Mercedes burst out laughing. She wasn't used to Quinn speaking like that about anyone.

"Well, is it not the truth? You could tell in two seconds what kind of person she is."

"She said we are very good friends, please tell me that's not true."

"She's a damn liar. You guys have the same social circles, but you are anything but close."

"Well, that's a relief. And what she said about Tina's husband?" Mercedes asked with dread.

Quinn sighed, "That is partly true. Rod always gave me the creeps. You ignored it because you liked Tina so much. Sam hated him. But he does not know that Rod cornered you like that, if he did, he would have killed him."

"Cornered me?"

"You told me that the three of you had been hanging out at your house and drinking sangria all afternoon. None of the kids were there, thank God. But you were all pretty drunk when you went into the house to get more wine out of the wine cellar; and he followed you in there. He said something about you flirting with him and you said you really weren't. And he pushed you against the wall and started to kiss you and he was forcibly touching you. Tina came down to see what kind of wine you were getting and saw. Instead of seeing what really was going on, she accused you of being lonely and trying to ruin her marriage like yours.

It sounded bad. I didn't find out until a month ago when we started hanging out regularly again, or I would have killed him myself. Tina tried to spread these lies about you to all of your mutual friends but they all knew Rod was a creep, so they didn't really believe her. You said you tried calling and seeing Tina to tell her the truth, but she wouldn't talk to you. Who knows what Rod told her, but they moved out of state about a month after that happened. Good riddance.

You never told anyone what really happened except for me. You felt badly for Tina, but I never did."

"Wow," Mercedes said trying to digest it all.

"I know."

"At Joe's you said you and Sam didn't like Tina, not anything about Rod."

"Tina was a bad influence. She drank all the time and you started to have cocktails in the middle of the afternoon with her. Also, her marriage was always drama and it was almost as if she wanted your marriage to have it too, so she would goad you into making a bigger deal out of things with Sam than they really were. I saw the change in you and when I tried to bring it up, you would get really defensive. It was part of, no, it was the reason you and I drifted."

"I'm sorry, Quinn. I really am. I don't know how I could have sided with someone over you."

"I've just been happy to have you back. This last month we have really been working at rebuilding our friendship and we have gotten back to a good spot."

"Thank you. Just thank you, girl."

"Okay, so I have a question. Do you still want to have your big birthday bash next weekend? We have everything scheduled with caterers and bartenders. We can easily cancel though."

"I don't know…are there a lot of people coming?"

"Seventy-seven, according to my last RSVP check."

"What? How is that possible?"

"Mercedes, you guys know a lot of people in Nashville."

"Wow, okay. I guess, let's keep it on. Just promise you won't leave my side so you can tell me about everyone."

"I promise. Are you going to see Sam tonight?"

"I don't know, I left him a message, but I haven't heard back from him."

"Well, call me if you need anything tonight, okay?"

"I will, thanks Quinn. Love you."

"I love you too, Cedes."

She looked out at the kids and they were eating a snack and still at the table. Laila was asking Trey constant questions about his homework.

"You guys doing good? I'm almost done," she called over to them.

They both looked at her and said yes.

She smiled at them then looked at her phone. She really wanted to call Sam, but felt like she was bothering him if she called again. She was just about to pull up his number when it started to ring and the ID said: Sam.

She answered instantly.

"Hello? Hi. Hello?" She was so nervous. Control yourself Mercedes, she said silently to herself.

His laugh came through the phone and warmed her heart.

"Hi Cedes. How did the day go?"

"Well, I got the kids to school just in the nick of time, met a new friend, ran into a horrible bitch of an old friend, came home and tried to remember things – which I didn't, talked to my mom, went to pick up the kids and now we are back home."

"Which bitch?" Sam asked.

"You mean there's more than one? Oh God. It was Rachel."

"Ah ha, the Queen Bitch."

"Yep. That friendship or whatever we had is not going to exist anymore."

"Good, I can't stand that woman. She's sweet when she needs something, then stab you in the back without thinking twice."

"That sounds like a good title for a new country song."

"You have always made fun of country song titles, even though you love the music!"

"Seriously, Sam, country music has some of the longest song titles of any genre. Ever."

They laughed because they both knew she spoke the truth.

"What are you making for dinner?"

"I don't know. I'm thinking of getting delivery. Sam, I need to take a cooking class or something. You know the only things I know how to make are grilled cheese and scrambled eggs."

"That sounds like a great idea," he said and they fell into silence.

She was about to ask him over for dinner, when he said, "Okay, well, it sounds like you did really well today. I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, Sam."

"I'll talk to you tomorrow, Cedes."

"Okay," she was trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice, but she knew she was not succeeding.

"Bye."

"Bye."

And she took the phone away from her ear and looked at it sadly. She missed him so much and it had only been 24 hours since she had seen him. She needed to shake it off so she could take care of her kids and get them fed.

After dinner, they went through the routine Sam did with them last night and she got them in each of their beds at a decent hour and again, fell onto the couch in exhaustion. She couldn't believe how tired two little kids could make her. She got up and cleaned up downstairs then decided to go upstairs to get ready for bed and veg in front of the TV in their room for the rest of the night.

She was walking up the stairs, when there was a knock at the door. She turned around and slowly walked back down while saying over and over in her head, "Please let it be Sam. Please let it be Sam." She looked through the peephole and her heart started to race. She stepped back and opened the door where Sam stood facing her.

Mercedes didn't say anything because she was afraid the only words that would come out of her mouth would be, "I love you".

He didn't say anything either, just looked directly into her eyes. Then he stepped forward and cupped her face in his hands while leaning down to bring his lips to hers.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or What Alice Forgot or any of its characters. Also, I do not own the song "Will You Love Me Tomorrow".

**You guys are the best ever! Thanks for your reviews and for reading this story.**

**Love you RS and Samcedes girls - xoxoxoxo**

Mercedes closed her eyes and let the emotions she was feeling at the moment wash over her. She concentrated on feeling his full lips pushed against her own. She wrapped her arms around his waist as he moved his hands from her face to encircling her body, drawing her into him. Mercedes opened her lips slightly and Sam immediately pushed his tongue into her mouth. A moan escaped him as she slowly swirled her tongue around his.

She felt a slight breeze against her arms and realized the door was still open. Sam didn't take his lips from hers as he used his foot to close the door behind him. Mercedes brought one hand up to his hair and ran her fingers through it while using the other to stroke her fingers lightly against his neck under his ear the way he liked.

"Cedes," he whispered huskily against her lips.

He began to rub her arms and his hands brushed against the side of her breasts, sending a shiver through her entire body. She looked up at him and even in the dim of the house, she could see his eyes were dark with passion. He brought one hand to her cheek again and she leaned into it, never breaking eye contact. She brought his hand around to her mouth, kissed it, then placed it back on her cheek.

Mercedes grasped hold of his other hand and began to draw him into the house and towards the stairs. She had no idea whether he would resist her or not and she didn't know his intentions coming over, but she wanted to get him as far away from the front door as possible. She was afraid he would suddenly change his mind about being there, and however illogical it was, the further away from the front door he was, the better.

But before she could get far, her fear that he would stop came true.

"Mercedes, I'm sorry. I don't know why I came tonight. I just grabbed my keys and was going to go for a drive just to think, and I ended up here," he took his hand back from her and ran both hands through his hair. "I can't stop thinking about you. And when you opened the door, I don't know what came over me."

Mercedes was still trying to come down from the desire she had just felt a few minutes ago and think clearly.

"Do you want to stay? We can talk it all out," she said hopefully.

He came closer to her and drew her against him. She leaned her head against his chest and they simultaneously inhaled deeply, breathing each other in. Mercedes lifted her head off of him and they looked at one another and started to laugh.

"You were smelling me!" she said between giggles.

"YOU were smelling me!" he laughed.

"Shhhh! You can't wake up the kids! Do you know how hard I worked to get them down?" She had her hand on his shoulder leaning against him trying to keep quiet.

Their laughs finally died down and he looked down at her.

"I miss you so much, Cedes."

"I'm here, Sam."

He nodded and kissed her again. It was a soft and gentle kiss.

"Do you want to stay?" she asked him again.

He sighed, "I do, but I think it would be confusing for the kids if I did."

"It would," she said and brought her hand to the back of his neck, using her fingers to trace light circles. He closed his eyes and she knew goose bumps were rising up and down his arms. She used her other hand to feel his chest and felt her own tingling through her body.

They began kissing again and his hands were rubbing all over her body, hungrily taking her all in. They broke apart breathing heavily. She knew they would end up sleeping together if this went on much longer.

His lips were swollen and even fuller than they typically were. He looked at her with such lust in his eyes that she wished he would just throw caution to the wind and storm up to their bedroom with her and make passionate love.

"I need to go before we end up in the bedroom."

"Would that be such a bad thing?" she asked him.

He smiled, "It would be an amazing thing, but I think we need to hold off on that."

Why, is what she wanted to say to him, but instead she said, "Tease."

Sam let out a big laugh resulting in a shushing from Mercedes.

"I'll take that for the first part, but the second part was all you."

"Mm hm, I see how you are, Sam."

"I'll talk to you later. I'm sorry I just came unannounced."

"That is never anything to be sorry about in my book."

"Okay," he said smiling.

"Okay," she said back.

They were looking at each other with goofy smiles on their faces for a beat before he turned to go. She wanted to smack him on the ass, and drew her hand back to do it, but thought in her head, "baby steps" and brought her hand back to her side.

He opened the door and turned to look at her again when he stepped outside. She was leaning against the door and he said, "You're still the most beautiful woman I have ever seen." And he turned to go to his car.

She broke out into a huge beaming smile and said, "Bye, Sam" as he went to the driver side door and opened it to get in.

Mercedes went inside and leaned against the closed door. She had butterflies as if they were newly dating.

"I love you Sam Evans," she said and walked upstairs to get in bed.

The next morning, she handled their routine better than the previous one. She woke up happy and with a bounce in her step. She was singing in the kitchen while the kids were eating and she caught them looking at each other and smiling. They were at school in time and she was looking forward to going to visit Kurt.

She pulled up to his bakery and hopped out of the car. When she came in, he was busy putting pastries in the display case.

"Good morning sunshine! I know we just met yesterday, but did you get some last night?"

Mercedes burst out laughing.

"I wish. But it was close enough for right now."

"Well, you have a glow, girl. Okay, let me go get my special treat I made for you. Cup of regular, room for cream?"

"Yes, please."

Kurt went back and brought out the most delicious brioche Mercedes had ever had. The light flakiness and the perfect sweetness were just heavenly. Mercedes took one of their small tables this time because the bakery ended up having a very busy morning. Kurt handled it seamlessly, he knew all of his regular's orders and people genuinely liked him. The morning rush didn't seem to be ending soon, so she waved bye to him and he blew her a kiss.

She ended up spending her day driving around Nashville and stopping at some of her previous favorite places. At two she got a missed call notification from her phone that she didn't even hear ringing. She looked and it had been Sam. He left a message saying he was picking up the kids today, so not to worry about it and he would talk to her later.

When she got back to the house, it was really lonely. She wished the kids and Sam were there. She flipped on the TV and before she knew it, her stomach was growling because it was dinnertime. She was boiling water for pasta, when her phone rang. Without even looking, because she assumed it would either be Sam, Quinn or her parents, she answered.

"Hello?"

"Hi Mercedes, it's Marcus."

"Oh! Hi, that's right, you said you were going to call me tonight."

"It's so strange that you don't remember me."

"Well, right now, I don't remember anything. I just remember being happily married to Sam and pregnant with Trey."

"It's hard for me, we have really bonded these past few months. I just went through a divorce myself and we would stay up many nights talking about what we were going through."

Mercedes was quiet. She could hear this was painful for him and he just needed to get it all off of his chest.

"You have really helped me get through some rough times and I guess, what I'm trying to say is, that I hope you can allow us to be friends. I could tell yesterday that you have no plans on divorcing Sam anymore, so I can keep my feelings in check."

"If we are going to be friends, Marcus, I need to know a few things first."

"Shoot," he answered.

Mercedes took a deep breath and asked the question she was so afraid of hearing the answer to.

"Have we slept together?" Her whole body was tense and her eyes were closed waiting for his answer.

"No, we haven't."

She released her breath and thanked her 2022 self for not going there.

"Were we dating, or just friends?"

"We started as just friends, and I have to admit, my feelings for you began to develop into more than that a couple of months ago. But last week, when I came to make dinner for you, we kissed. And we were discussing whether to take it to the next level or not."

"But Marcus, I was, I am still married to Sam. It just doesn't feel right that we were even considering that."

"You were going to file divorce papers next week."

His words felt like a punch to the stomach.

"I – I," she was stuttering and couldn't find any words.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have just dropped that on you like that."

Mercedes heard him talking, but she was mostly thanking God and the universe for her fainting spell that had knocked her out.

"Mercedes?"

"Yes, I'm here."

"Do you think we can be friends?"

"I think so, but I will have to take it very slow. Right now my priority is getting my family back intact."

"I understand. So, I will be seeing you at school, then?"

"Yes, I will see you there and I promise do carline correctly this time."

He let out a small laugh, "Sounds good. Good night, Mercedes."

"Good night," she said and hung up.

She sat in place for a little bit before realizing her pasta water was starting to boil away. She couldn't believe how close she had been to divorcing Sam. It felt like the hundredth time since waking up from her accident that she was thankful that it had happened.

The rest of the week went by fairly fast as she became accustomed to her daily activities. She had spent her mornings with Kurt and insisted that he and Blaine come to her birthday party on Saturday. She went by the country club to check in with the president who was just fine with her taking a couple of months away from the board. She was falling in love with Trey and Laila more and more each day. They brought so much joy and laughter to her life. Their different personalities seemed to be a blend of both her and Sam.

Quinn and Puck came over for dinner a couple of nights and Sam one. She was experimenting with recipes she found online and all but one had been a disaster.

It was Thursday before she realized Sam might not have been invited to her party. She sent him a text because she knew he was at the studio all day writing and recording some new work.

_Hi Sam. Are you coming to this big b-day party Quinn has expertly planned on Sat.?_

_I heard about it, we were going to say to everyone I had to travel. Am I invited?_

_YES! Please come, I'm scared of who I'll meet there._

_Lol. Alright, I'll be there. Is it okay if I invite Steve?_

_The more the merrier._

Saturday came and Quinn was there early to start working with the party planner on setting up the house. There were so many people coming in and out of their home that she was glad the kids were at Sam's parent's house for the weekend. She still hadn't seen his parents and she had to admit, she was a little nervous to. She didn't know how they felt about her presently. She would tackle that later.

At around noon, a huge bouquet of her favorite flower, tulips, was delivered. They were beautiful and the card simply read:

"35 going on 25. Can't wait to see you tonight, Cedes. Love, Sam"

She smiled and brought the tulips upstairs into their room. She put them on her dresser, so happy to have them there instead of the others.

There was knock on her door, and she turned to see Quinn.

"How are you doing? You are working so hard! Thank you, Quinn. What can I do?"

"Nothing! This is your birthday and your day to relax. I just came up to see if you want one of these pink lemonade sparklers. Pink lemonade, a splash of peach Schnapps and champagne. They're delicious."

"Yes, please!" She said, but hesitated for a split second remembering what Quinn had said about her drinking with Tina.

"It's nothing like what happened with Tina," Quinn said as if reading her mind.

Mercedes smiled gratefully and took the fluke from her friend. They clinked glasses and said cheers.

"Okay, so your hairstylist is coming at two and your dress should be delivered any minute. You just relax, throw back the sparklers and get ready for a good time tonight."

It was six o'clock and people were supposed to start showing up. Mercedes looked at herself in the full length mirror and had to admit she looked great. Her hair was cascading down her back in large curls like she favored, her dress was red and form fitting in the bodice while loose and flowing on the bottom. It hugged everything just right.

"Hello? Mercedes? Puck and I are back!" she heard Quinn calling from downstairs.

She smiled and turned to go downstairs while putting her wedding rings on her finger. When she got to the top of the stairs, Quinn looked up at her and her hand went to her mouth.

Puck let out a long whistle, and Quinn exclaimed, "Cedes! You look beautiful!"

"Thank you very much!" she said, smiling and quickly coming down the stairs.

Quinn looked stunning in a sexy little black dress.

"You guys look amazing too!" She said, bringing them both into a hug.

One of the waiters came over to them with a tray full of the pink lemonade sparklers and the girls grabbed one each giggling, while Puck shook his head back and forth talking about not being seen with a girly drink in his hand.

"To a great party," Quinn said.

"To a great party," Mercedes repeated.

By seven, there were a lot of people there, but no Sam. Half of them seemed to know about her accident and the other half were clueless. She had her speech down pat by the time she had to explain what happened the fifth time. She was standing back by the open French doors to the patio when she saw Sam come in the front door. He looked gorgeous in his fitted shirt over slacks and a trim fit sport coat. She was smiling and staring at him, when she saw a slender arm snake through his.

"What the hell?" she said under her breath and watched for his reaction.

The woman was tall, raven-haired and very pretty. Mercedes nudged Quinn in the arm to check out what was going on at the front door. She saw Sam notice the woman's arm in his and he pulled away from her and gave her a questioning look. Behind them came an older and handsome man she assumed was Steve.

"I can't believe that bitch had the nerve to come here."

"So that's Gwen. She's got a lot of nerve showing up here at my birthday. Bitch."

Both Quinn and Mercedes were giving the side eye to Gwen as she fell back behind Sam and walked next to Steve instead. Sam was scanning the party looking for Mercedes, and when his eyes fell on her, he stopped walking and froze in place for a few seconds before smiling and walking towards her quickly.

Mercedes momentarily forgot about Gwen being there as she and Sam maintained eye contact with each other until he reached her.

"Cedes, you look beautiful. Happy birthday." He said and brought her into a hug.

"Thank you, Sam" she said and looked over his shoulder at Gwen. She looked pissed and had turned her head the other direction.

"Hi Quinn," Sam said as he and Mercedes let go of their embrace.

"Sam," she said. Mercedes knew she was wondering what the hell Gwen was doing there.

"Mercedes," Sam said turning to Steve and Gwen, "This is Steve and Gwen."

Steve came forward and hugged her, "I know you girl, but I know you don't remember me and my charming personality."

Then she looked at Gwen, who made no effort to reach her hand out or hide her distaste for Mercedes. You are at our home and at my party, ho. Mercedes thought. But she didn't want to cause a scene, so instead she held out her hand and said, "Nice to meet you."

Gwen looked at her hand and then decided to be civil and reached her hand out and they shook. Quinn was glaring daggers at her as if daring her to do something foolish. At that moment, the waiter came over and broke the female tension by asking if anyone wanted the bruschetta hors d'oeuvres he had on his tray.

A few hours later the party was still going strong and almost everyone was tipsy, almost drunk or drunk. She and Sam had hardly had a chance to speak much of the night, but it was okay, everyone was having a great time. Sam was mingling with some friends Mercedes met but couldn't remember their names. Mercedes, Quinn and Kurt were laughing hysterically over something Quinn had said while Blaine and Puck were looking on in amusement. The three of them had been keeping tabs on Gwen and she had looked thoroughly pissed the whole night while not leaving Steve's side.

Mercedes didn't know how it started (maybe it was Kurt), but all of a sudden the whole party was chanting for Sam to sing. Sam was yelling "No" over and over but people weren't having it. Then Mercedes joined in with the chant and he looked at her from across the room and shouted, "Only because it's your birthday, Cedes!" The whole room erupted in cheers and someone produced a guitar out of nowhere. Sam was smiling as he took the guitar and went to stand at the front of the open patio doors. The room quieted down to a hush as all eyes were on him. He strummed the guitar a few times, tuning it until he finally got it right.

Sam found Mercedes with his eyes and began strumming the opening of the song, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", and then he began to sing:

_Tonight you're mine completely,_

_You give your love so sweetly,_

_Tonight the light of love is in your eyes,_

_But will you love me tomorrow?_

_Is this a lasting treasure,_

_Or just a moment's pleasure,_

_Can I believe the magic of your sighs,_

_Will you still love me tomorrow?_

_Tonight with words unspoken,_

_You said that I'm the only one,_

_But will my heart be broken,_

_When the night (When the night)_

_Meets the morning sun._

_I'd like to know that your love,_

_Is the love I can be sure of,_

_So tell me now and I won't ask again,_

_Will you still love me tomorrow?_

_Will you still love me tomorrow?_

Mercedes felt the tears come to her eyes and spill over as Sam sang the feelings in his heart to her in front of all of their friends. He did not break eye contact with her once and it was as if everyone disappeared around them. She felt Kurt grab her arm on her right side and sniff back tears. Quinn grabbed her arm on her other side, rocking to his beautiful acoustic version of the 60's hit.

She didn't know how he thought of that song to sing, but it seemed to tell her all the things he feared in moving forward with her. When he sang the last note, the entire house was silent. Sam and Mercedes were still locked in a staring trance until Steve shouted, "And that's why he's a star!" and began applauding loudly. Everyone else joined in and people were clapping Sam on the back and praising him. Mercedes heard a door slam in the distance, but paid no mind to it. She heard Quinn and Kurt grumbling about "hag needed to leave", but all she could think of was getting to Sam and being in his arms.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or What Alice Forgot or any of its characters.

**Thanks for reading and reviewing, everyone! This is a pretty light chapter, just showing some Sam/Mercedes interaction. Hope you enjoy!**

**RS and Samcedes girls – you rock my world! Xoxoxoxoxo.**

Mercedes was trying to see Sam over the crowd of people surrounding him. She heard Quinn and Kurt murmuring to each other behind her.

"Fucking bitch, I can't believe it took her that long to figure out no one wanted her ass here," Quinn was saying while taking another swig of her sparkler.

"Girl, I was just waiting for her simple ass to step out of line. Just waiting! And if she had –" Kurt stopped, gasping for breath, "He's coming!"

They both broke apart and came back up to Mercedes' sides.

"Oh Cedes, here he comes. I think that was the most emotional song I have ever heard in my life," Quinn was saying to her quietly.

"I know," Mercedes managed to whisper back.

"Honey, that man is in love with you. I just have so many emotions right now," Kurt was saying and turned away to go to Blaine for a hug.

"Just don't jinx it. I don't want to say anything out loud yet," her heart was pounding hard watching Sam hand the guitar to someone and begin to walk over to where she was standing. Quinn gave her hand a squeeze and fell back to go stand with Puck.

This is Sam, this is just Sam, Mercedes was saying over and over again to herself to try to calm her nerves. The way he was walking towards her reminded Mercedes of the first day they met.

_Quinn and Mercedes were standing with the rest of the freshman, waiting for orientation to start, full of excitement and nerves. It was really their first time out of Lima and starting a new life. They were just so thankful they had each other._

_Mercedes had the campus map out to see where their dorm was in relation to everything else, when she happened to look up and lock eyes with a tall blonde guy standing clear on the other side of the crowded room. She was startled and looked down right away, but slowly looked back up to see him still looking at her, this time with a lopsided grin. She gave him a slow smile back and he responded with a full blown goofy smile that lit up his entire face. Mercedes couldn't help but let out a laugh._

"_What are you laughing at?" Quinn asked and looked over at her friend. She saw Mercedes had no intention of answering her and looked in the direction her friend was gazing and laughing. She saw the handsome guy standing across the room chuckling too and staring right back at Mercedes. _

"_Mercedes!" Quinn laughed, "You are flirting with that guy!"_

"_Wha – " Mercedes started to say. But her mouth slammed shut when she saw he had started to walk towards her. She had had one boyfriend in high school, but it had been more of a "why not" kind of relationship. They hung out with the same crowd and everyone kept telling them they should go out, so they did and it was more of a casual thing._

_So when he started to make his way over to her, she immediately had butterflies in her stomach, her heart was beating fast and she began to play with her grandmother's small ring she wore on her right pinky finger._

_When he made his way up to them, he still hadn't taken his eyes off of Mercedes. They both stood in front of each other not speaking, but just staring at each other._

_She could see Quinn's head moving looking back and forth between the two of them. And she started to laugh again._

"_Well, how about I take the lead and do the introductions? Hello, this is Mercedes and I'm Quinn. We are new to town from Lima, Ohio and we love Vandy. What's your name?"_

_Sam had just nodded while listening to Quinn, but still looking directly at Mercedes. He put his hand out to shake Mercedes' hand._

"_Your name is Mercedes. It fits you. Very pretty. I'm Sam. I grew up here in Nashville and I love Vandy too."_

_Mercedes extended her hand to him and they began to shake. And they continued to shake._

"_Sam," Mercedes said, "A perfect and strong name." They were still shaking hands when a woman's voice came over the speakers starting the "welcome to Vanderbilt speech" to all of the freshmen. Quinn was still chuckling at her friend. They finally dropped their hands to their sides and gave one another one more big smile before turning to listen to what the woman had to say._

Mercedes was feeling the same way at this moment that she had on that day. Sam came up to her and looked down at her with a mixture of love and hesitation. Mercedes took his hands in hers and someone yelled, "Kiss!". Sam looked in the direction from where the call had come from and laughed. Then he turned back to Mercedes with a smile and let go of one of her hands and used the other to twirl her, then brought her back flush against his body and dipped her, leaning over to give her a full lipped kiss as she was bent backwards. He slowly brought her back to standing position and stepped back saying,

"Let's hear it for the birthday girl!" And everyone clapped and cheered. Mercedes' breath was taken away by the romance of the gesture. Then the music started again and the drinks were flowing.

The party finally began to wrap up a couple hours later and Mercedes and Sam were standing at the front door saying good byes to everyone while the caterers cleaned everything up. Kurt and Blaine came up to them, Kurt very happily drunk and Blaine completely sober as the designated driver.

"Mercedes," Kurt began, "We are friend soul mates. We were always meant to meet and I am just so fucking happy you finally came into my life!" Mercedes laughed and said she felt the same way. Then he turned to Sam, "I had no idea you were the Sam married to my friend here, but I have to confess: I don't even like country music and I listen to your stuff. You are in loooovvvvveee. Now all you need to do is kick that skank ass bitch – " Kurt's rant was interrupted by Blaine covering his mouth.

"I'm sorry; Kurt gets very emotional when he drinks. Thank you so much for having us, this was a beautiful party and you have a gorgeous home." Blaine hugged Mercedes and shook Sam's hand. Then Kurt took Mercedes in for a massive hug and whispered in her ear, "That Gwen troll is nobody. Get your man." she smiled at him and said, "I intend to." Then Kurt hugged Sam for an abnormally long time and Blaine had to pry him away.

"Did he whisper something to you?" Mercedes asked Sam as they watched the two of them go down the steps and wait for the valet to bring their car.

Sam chuckled, "Yeah. He said I have a good solid chest."

"Hmm, well, he's not wrong there," Mercedes said.

They walked together back to the family room where Quinn was passed out on the couch with her head laying in Puck's lap.

"I was just waiting to move her until everyone left" he said looking at his wife with love.

"She worked so hard to make this party perfect," Mercedes said. And she again felt her emotions starting to get the best of her looking at her best friend who had given her a second chance when she may not have deserved it.

"Do you guys want to stay here tonight?" Mercedes asked.

"Thanks, but I'd better get her home. I'm fine to drive. Once I saw how many pink things Quinn was putting away, I knew I'd be on DD duty." He got up and easily swept Quinn up with care into his arms to carry her to their car.

"Happy birthday, Mercedes. Sam, it was good to see you again, man."

"Yeah, you too Puck. We still need to go on that fishing trip we talked about way back."

"We do. Alright, let me get my lush of a beautiful wife home. Night, guys."

Mercedes watched him walk carrying Quinn to the front of the house and before he went out of the door, she saw him smiling down at her sleeping face and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

She turned to look at Sam who looked like he wasn't sure what he should be doing.

"Stay," was all she said to him and he looked back at her with that same reluctance she had become accustomed to lately. "Tell you what. How about we finish off that bottle of champagne over there, we can turn on a movie that takes itself way too seriously and we can make fun of it and then go to bed where we will really just fall asleep from sheer exhaustion. No funny business."

Sam grinned, "Done. I'll get the bottle and you choose the movie."

Mercedes smiled and turned to go to the TV to turn it on and look through their streaming movie options. There was one called, "Enlightened Beings" that she thought fit the bill perfectly. Sam came over with not one, but two bottles of champagne and two glasses.

"Really?" she said laughing.

"Really. Now what movie did you find?"

"Enlightened Beings," she couldn't even say it without dissolving into laughter.

"Oh my God. Okay, let's do this."

They spent the next 2.5 hours tearing the movie apart: from the facial expressions that bordered looking like they were constipated, to the dialogue that dragged, to the physical overacting. They were in tears laughing by the end when the credits started to roll with the most dramatic music they had ever heard.

"Wow, Cedes. I don't think I have ever seen a movie try so hard for an Oscar nomination."

"Right? I'm never watching that again! Ever."

Mercedes knew they were both drunk. She tried to focus on his arm as she ran her fingers up and down it while they were sprawled out on the large couch, but couldn't.

"Sam?"

"Yes?"

"I don't like that bitch, Gwen."

Sam started to laugh.

"What? Why?"

"She thinks you're hers."

"No she doesn't."

"You have always been clueless to girls flirting and trying to get you, Sam. Remember all those times in college where I had to handle that business when a girl was blatantly flirting with you and you had no idea?"

"I always thought you were exaggerating. I'm actually still 90% sure you were. And let's not get started about fighting people off. I don't know how many guys I had to threaten with physical violence over you! Please, don't even try to compare."

"Anyways. Gwen needs to step back."

"She's just a friend. She has been there for me a lot this past year. There's nothing more there."

Mercedes looked at him skeptically, "I trust you. I don't trust her."

"Okay, now that we are talking about not trusting a person of the opposite sex, I don't trust our children's school principal."

She tried to act cool like she had no idea what he was talking about, but her reaction skills were dulled by champagne.

Sam was watching her and she knew all the different feelings she had in these past five seconds were all playing out on her face.

"Okay, I spoke with him last night and apparently, he has been here for me too. Just like Gwen for you. He went through a divorce and I guess we bonded over that. But I told him there's no more right now because I need to focus on getting my family back together." She felt like she couldn't get the words out fast enough.

"I see," Sam said and let the words hang in the air.

"I want our family together, Sam."

"Trust me, I do too," he said quietly.

"Then let's just do it. We are in this together. Whatever happens, we are a team. Always. We took the vows, for better or for worse, right? We got through our "worse", now let's get to working on the better."

"If my album comes out at the end of the year as planned, then that means touring next year."

"First of all, that is so great for a new album. Secondly, we can make it through tours, Sam. If we are both committed to this marriage without bitterness, this will be easy. I can even come for a little bit with you and your parents or mine can watch the kiddos. Actually, I need to ask, even though I'm scared," Mercedes said with a nervous look on her face. She squeezed her eyes shut and asked, "What do your parents think of me? They used to love me."

She peaked through one of her eyes to watch Sam's reaction.

"My parents are in the same boat as yours. They are mad because they feel like we gave up too easily. They still love you, Cedes, they just have seen a change in you from the person you were before. And you could really never do any wrong since you have given them grandbabies."

She let out a breath and fell back against the couch with a "Phew."

"You know, your dad calls me still for our weekly football conversations."

"He does?" Mercedes said in shock. "You guys started that right after we got married. Every Tuesday night."

"Same day and time."

"Did I know?"

"I think you suspected, but you never said anything."

Mercedes tried to suppress a yawn, but it still came out loud and full open mouthed. The contagious yawn jumped to Sam and he did the same thing. She was suddenly very tired and her eyelids felt like they were being pulled down by her lashes.

"Bed." She said like a cavewoman.

They both got up and the room started to spin for Mercedes.

"Oh no. Oh no, I've got the spins. That means I may throw up tonight and I will definitely have a massive hangover tomorrow."

Sam put his arm around her waist and let her lean against him for support. They got to the stairs and she looked up at them thinking they were never ending.

"No. Nope, that's not gonna happen."

Sam laughed. Then he picked her up princess-style and walked easily up the stairs with her resting her head against his chest. She closed her eyes, but the minute she did, the spinning started again. So she instead looked at his neck, then his cheek and then the hair that was starting to grow long over the top of his ear.

They got to the bedroom and Sam seemed like he was going to carefully place her on the bed, but he was drunk too, so they ended up both falling onto the edge of it and being bounced off onto the floor. They collapsed into laughter between yells of "Ow!".

Sam rolled onto his back and Mercedes snuggled up to his left side. His arm wrapped around her shoulders and they both passed out right there on the plush carpet in their party clothes.

Mercedes woke up in pain with the sun shooting its rays straight into the room. Her body hurt, her head hurt, even her hair felt like it hurt.

"Ugh, I feel like shit," she said and looked at Sam. He didn't even stir. She wanted to stay there longer, but also needed to splash water on her face. She crawled over to the bathroom and pulled herself up by the counter. Thankfully, she didn't feel dizzy and proceeded to wash her face.

She unzipped the dress and let it fall to the floor and she changed into a tank and yoga pants. She went slowly back into the bedroom and prodded Sam gently with her foot. It was too hard to bend down.

"Sam. Sam. Sam!"

He grunted and moaned as he woke up.

"You go ahead and still sleep, but you need to get up onto the bed."

He opened his eyes and looked up at her. He smiled, but then the smile turned to a grimace, "I feel like shit."

"I know, me too. I'm going to go downstairs and start some coffee. I will make some toast to soak up some of that champagne," they both cringed when she named the beverage that had gotten them into this pain in the first place, "and I will be back."

Sam had started to sit up and pull himself up onto the bed and just grunted in response. Again, she felt the need to slap that ass, and this time she did. Sam turned to her in surprise and then held his head, falling onto the bed.

"Ow, Cedes! That spank made its way all the way up to the top of my head. My head is going to split open and it's all because you couldn't keep your hands off of my ass. Your fault!"

"It was worth it," she said smugly and turned to leave the room.

She was smiling and walking down the stairs when she saw a figure through the frosted glass of the front door pacing back and forth. She stopped descending the stairs and watched with narrowed eyes as the woman with the raven black hair that she had seen all the night before in her house stopped pacing and rang the doorbell.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or What Alice Forgot or any of its characters.

**Thank you for reading and reviewing! You guys are honestly the best and I hope you enjoy.**

**My RS/Samcedes girls: Keep being fabulous! Xoxoxoxo.**

The doorbell ring seemed to course through her entire body and she was overcome with the eerie sense that she had experienced this very situation before. It felt like déjà vu even though this was the first time she remembered seeing this woman from this angle outside of the closed front door. She grabbed onto the banister to steady herself as her mind played out a memory like a dream:

_Mercedes was late. She hated being late. She was supposed to already be on the road heading downtown to meet Quinn for their lunch date to go over the guest list for her birthday party. She was rushing around her room and went to her jewelry box to get a pair of dangling earrings and glanced at the bouquet of flowers from Marcus; allowing herself a quick smile before turning to rush downstairs._

_She was scrolling through her many emails on her phone while going down the steps when the doorbell rang. Surprised, because she was not expecting anyone, she looked through the door's frosted glass windows from where she was and saw Steve's assistant, Gwen, standing outside._

"_What the hell does she want?" she said to herself while continuing down the stairs._

_She grabbed her purse from the foyer table and opened the door._

"_What could you possibly want, Gwen?" _

"_Well, it's good to see you too, Mercedes. Can I come in?"_

"_No. I'm on my way to a meeting. What can I do for you?"_

_Gwen looked at her with a haughty expression. Mercedes looked back with her own look that showed her she couldn't give a fuck what she was here to talk to her about._

"_You need to divorce Sam."_

_Out of all the things she expected this bitch to say, this was not one of them._

"_Excuse me?" She was so full of instant rage that this woman, who she had never liked, was here at her home, telling her what to do in her own life._

"_Listen, Mercedes, you never deserved Sam. I have been there for him during this separation and I plan on being there for him on a whole new level soon. And because he will not move out of friendship zone with me while still technically married to you, I need you to file those divorce papers."_

"_You really thought, in your tiny little brain, that you could come here and demand something of me? You are nothing. You work at the company that has made Sam rich. You are trying to maneuver your way in on Sam, and try to build whatever dream you have of fame by getting together with him? I have news for you, he would NEVER go for someone like you. Now get off of my property before I call the cops and accuse you of being a crazy fan."_

_Gwen just smiled at her, "Okay, so you are going to play it this way. Well, I will let you in on a little secret. I'm going to seduce him by telling him wonderful things about himself and doing things to him that you never did. Then I am going to have sex with him and in a month or so, oops: a fake pregnancy. And he is a decent guy, so he will take care of me, probably marry me and I will get what I want: a rich husband." She paused relishing Mercedes' look of disdain, " And if you call him and try to warn him about me, I will deny everything. He sees me as an innocent and sweet friend who has been nothing but loyal. So try me." She looked back at Mercedes with a wicked gleam in her eye._

Mercedes leaned fully against the wall of the staircase, still gripping the banister. Her heart was pounding at a record pace and she had broken out in a sweat. This had been her first memory since her accident. She felt faint, and that, coupled with the hangover was not helping. This happened the morning of my accident, she thought to herself.

Gwen rang the doorbell again and it snapped Mercedes out of her dazed state.

"Get it together, Mercedes. Get it together." She shook her head and wiped the sheer film of perspiration off of her brow. She stood up straight and pushed her hair back to let it fall down her back. She squared her shoulders and marched down the rest of the stairs to open the door and face this conniving bitch of a woman.

Mercedes took a deep breath and opened. Gwen seemed startled when she swung open the door, but composed herself quickly. She must have been expecting Mercedes to say something, but when she only stared at Gwen, she started to stammer out what she had come to say.

"Mercedes, I just came to tell you that Sam and I are together and you need to step back from him because what we have is deep and I am in love with him."

Mercedes just looked back at this hag with the appearance of disinterest. "So this is the route she's going now," she thought to herself. She still refused to say anything yet. She was curious to hear more.

"Well, aren't you going to say anything? I just told you that the husband that you are now still in love with, is in love with me."

"You didn't say he was in love with you. You said you are in love with him."

"Well he IS in love with me. I'm sorry about your accident and that you don't remember anything, but Sam has moved on. And you should really think twice about coming between two people in a relationship."

"If you are in a relationship, why hasn't he mentioned you?"

"I'm sure it's because he doesn't want to hurt your feelings, being that you are in a tender state and everyone is fucking tip toeing around you right now."

Mercedes just nodded her head.

"So, it would be better for everyone involved if you just step back and let things go on as they have been for the last year."

Mercedes let the silence hang in the air for a few seconds before looking her dead in the eyes and speaking.

"You know, Gwen, it's really interesting; you standing here saying this to me right now. It's so funny to me, you ringing this doorbell at our house, just like you did a week and a half ago," she paused waiting her Gwen's reaction. She savored seeing her open and close her mouth in shock.

"Yeah, Gwen. I fucking remember you coming up to our door and talking about some brilliant fake pregnancy plan to get Sam to marry you so you can have your rich husband," Mercedes stepped closer to Gwen, invading her personal space as she continued, "So you'd better watch your back because even though you don't think I will do anything to you because I'm a mom, I will not hesitate to beat your wannabe home-wrecking ass down if you EVER come to our house again or try to manipulate Sam in ANY way. Do you understand me, bitch?" She said as she gave her a quick, but strong shove. Gwen staggered backwards down the few steps in astonishment.

"Get off of our property, NOW, before I give you that beat down right here and now in our driveway. Oh, and be quiet leaving, Sam's still sleeping upstairs."

Gwen was looking back at Mercedes in complete shock. Mercedes took a step towards her and Gwen turned around and practically ran to her car. She gave one more hasty glance her way and Mercedes gave her a double flip off in response. She opened her car door and got in quickly and sped off down their long driveway.

Mercedes was breathing hard and had adrenaline flowing through her body. She turned around to go back in the house and closed the door. Her hands were shaking, but it felt good telling that woman off.

Then her thoughts went to: she had remembered something. It felt strange, like she had been watching it happen to someone else. This was good that she remembered, but she also felt scared. Would more memories just come flowing back to her now that this one had made its way through? Would she tell Sam? No, she was keeping this to herself for now. And she knew that bitch, Gwen, would be keeping both conversations to herself as well.

She gave herself a high five for handing Gwen her own ass and went to the kitchen to make the coffee and toast.

Sam and Mercedes spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get the hangover out of their systems. They laughed and talked about their worst drinking experiences they had had together. He would never let her live down the time he held her hair while she puked in the toilet for a full night after accepting a dare to do 4 Kamikaze shots in a row their sophomore year.

Sam looked over at the floor at the foot of their bed and got a distant look in his eyes while side smiling.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked him.

"About four years ago, we decided to drop the kids off at my parent's so we could go out for a date night. We were going to go out to a fancy restaurant and then go see this blues band you liked. I went to take the kids and came home and I couldn't find you anywhere downstairs, so I came up here and you had set up the room just like that night we wrote 'Strumming Your Love'. There were candles everywhere and you had a blanket on the floor with pizza and beer and my guitar was leaning against that dresser," Sam was still looking at the spot where she must have set it all up. Then he looked back at her, "I was going through a dry period where I just couldn't write. I would try and nothing came to me. You were trying to jump start my creative side." He smiled and ran his hand through his hair.

"Did it work?"

"It did. After that night I couldn't get the words to paper fast enough. The album that came out a year later was the bestselling one."

Mercedes smiled, "That is such a wonderful story, Sam. It's actually good to hear I wasn't a complete asshole all the time."

"No, Cedes, you weren't. How are you feeling? Pounding head and upset stomach subsided? Mine have."

"Actually, yeah. Mine too."

"So I'm supposed to pick up the kids in," he looked at his watch, "30 minutes. Do you want to meet at Joe's for dinner?"

With her stomach feeling better and feeling suddenly very empty, that sounded like a great idea.

"Yes!"

"Is it okay if I shower here?"

Mercedes just nodded her head. She couldn't form words thinking of his naked and wet body.

"Thanks," he said and hopped out of bed and went into the bathroom. The shower started up and she heard him unzipping his pants and his clothes falling to the floor.

"This is torture," she said quietly. Then, "This is torture!" she yelled at the top of her lungs so he would hear her over the sound of streaming water. She could hear him laughing but received no invitation to join him.

"Ugh, tease!" she yelled.

After his long shower, he left to go get the kids and they decided to meet at the restaurant at 6:30. She had time to call Quinn and tell her all about her encounter with Gwen, but all she got was her voicemail. So she left a long message about the whole thing from remembering what happened with Gwen, to how she told her off today; until the voicemail cut her off saying her message was too long.

She got to the restaurant right at 6:30 and she saw Sam and the kids already there. There were two teenaged girls at their table hugging each other and jumping up and down while Sam signed an autograph for the two of them. Mercedes smiled and made her way over.

Laila saw her first and jumped up from the table to run up and give her trademark full body hug.

"Hi Laila! Did you have fun with Grandma and Grandpa?"

"Yes! Grandpa took us out to the yard and we dug for worms and I found more than Trey!"

"Wow, how many did you find?"

Laila thought it over a little bit.

"I found 127!"

Mercedes burst out laughing, "Really! You must have needed a really big bucket to put them all in."

Laila just nodded and grabbed her hand to bring her to the table. When they got there, Sam automatically stood up. Southern gentleman through and through, she thought.

Trey also got up and gave his mom a hug. Mercedes looked over at Sam quickly with happiness in her eyes. This was the first time since the accident he had initiated a hug with her.

"Hi Trey. I heard you went worm hunting with Grandpa."

"Did you know you could cut off one of their ends and it _grows back_?" He asked her with wide excited eyes.

"Ew, no." She said and made an exaggerated grossed out face. Both of the kids laughed and they all sat down.

"Alright, I have a plan of what we should order," Sam said to them.

Laila clapped and bounced up and down in her chair waiting for the big plan. Trey looked at his dad with a little more subdued excitement than his sister.

"Tell us!" Mercedes laughed after he made a big production of pausing to build anticipation.

"We are each going to order a different burger – no one can order the same thing. Then we will cut them in quarters and split them. Family style." He finished with a very satisfied and proud look.

"That's your big plan?" Mercedes teased him. "My proposal is: we order whichever one we want and whoever finishes their whole burger first gets to be the only one to order dessert and eat it all by themselves."

Sam looked back at her with mock shock that she would challenge him.

"Okay, kids, you guys pick which plan we should go with. If split –"

They both cut him off by yelling, "Dessert plan!"

"I can't believe this!" Sam was shaking his head, "Betrayed by not one, but both of my kids!"

"Just admit it, mine was a better plan."

"Okay, we will see how good it is when we all have indigestion from inhaling our burgers just to put some dessert down on top of it!"

"Speak for yourself. I can handle it. Laila, can you handle it?"

"YES!" she yelled.

"Trey?"

"Yes!" he said smiling.

"Sam? You in?"

"Of course I'm in! Bring it, woman."

At the end of the meal, everyone but Laila was shocked that she was the winner.

"How can someone so little gulp down a huge burger like that?" Mercedes was looking at her tiny daughter in amazement.

"I wanted dessert." Laila responded.

Sam and Mercedes locked eyes and he said, "Definitely her mother's daughter."

When dinner was over, Mercedes realized that Sam would probably not be staying over since the kids were there. They were all standing outside of the restaurant and about to say bye, when Trey asked,

"Dad, are you going to come back to the house?"

He had such hope in his eyes as he looked at Sam, that Mercedes felt like her heart was going to break. Sam must have thought the same thing, because he agreed to come over to tuck them into bed.

Mercedes and Laila followed Sam and Trey back to the house.

"Mommy, my belly hurts," she said from the backseat.

"Aw, Laila. I'm sorry, honey. I shouldn't have made up that eating contest."

"It was worth it," she said back. Mercedes looked in the rearview mirror at her sweet daughter looking out of her window. The lights were playing off of her face as they passed by cars and streetlights. She was such a beautiful little girl and Mercedes couldn't believe how much personality she had packed into her little six year old self. Laila must have felt her eyes on her because she looked from the window to the rearview mirror and locked eyes with her mom.

"I love you, mommy."

"I love you too, Laila."

Laila smiled big and went back to looking out of her window.

They got back to the house and they all decided to watch a half hour show that Laila loved and Trey pretended not to like, but she could tell he secretly did, called The Boompernaughts. Mercedes tried to follow the cartoon, but was lost with all of the characters and the kids plus Sam were trying to explain it all to her, but she was still lost. They had all given up on her after about five minutes and decided she could figure it out herself.

After that, it was the bedtime ritual. Sam took Laila into her bedroom to read her three books and Mercedes walked with Trey to his room and tucked him into bed, kissed him on the forehead and turned out the lights. This time, Mercedes wasn't tired. She must be getting used to this, she thought. She was downstairs looking through a magazine, then tidying up already neat things and started to watch TV when she realized it had been a long time since Sam went in with Laila.

She crept upstairs and looked into her room. Sam was lying on top of the covers with a book open and resting on his chest, while Laila was curled up into his side, both of them snoring away. It was the sweetest thing she had seen. She didn't want to disturb them, so she silently crept over to take the book off of him and turned out the light and closed the door behind her.

She leaned against the door with her eyes closed. Her family was beginning to come back together.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or What Alice Forgot or any of its characters.

**Thank you everyone for all of your comments and alerts. It really means the world to me every time I get an email notification. I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**RS/Samcedes girls: You girls make me so gushy and lovey with your support. Xoxoxoxo.**

Mercedes was having an extremely stressful dream where she was driving fast trying to get someplace urgently that she knew was important. She was trying to get there but she just kept passing the same houses and parked cars. She was going in circles and no matter which way she turned, it was the same. Her heart was beating fast and she was starting to panic. She needed to get there, but where was she going?

She was tossing and turning when she woke with a start to a warm hand on her bare shoulder.

"Mercedes," Sam's voice was like a calming wave that washed over her tension filled body. She unclenched both of her hands that had been balled up in tight fists, her nails digging into her palm. She blinked a few times up at Sam who was sitting next to her on the bed, looking at her with concern written all over his face. She knew she was still breathing fast, but as she looked back at him, her breath started to slow.

"It's okay," he brought the hand that was on her shoulder up to her hair and brushed it away from her face, then he placed the hand to her cheek.

"What were you dreaming?"

"I was trying to get somewhere important. I felt like I had to get there or something horrible would happen. But I kept driving in circles. I couldn't get out of the same street. I was panicking." She still had the lingering tug of the tension filled dream, but it was subsiding.

"I'm sorry," Sam said and he moved his hand back to her shoulder and began to rub it soothingly. She closed her eyes and she listened to his breathing that began to get heavier with each rub from his hand. It was just a touch, but she could feel the longing they both felt for one another in the darkened room with only the moonlight spilling through the windows.

She opened her eyes and sat up silently. Sam moved his hand from her shoulder to the back of her neck, never breaking the massaging motion. Mercedes leaned her head forward so she was looking down at her lap, her hair falling around her like a curtain on either side of her face. The bed shifted as Sam stood up and swiftly moved behind her, putting both of his legs on either side of her so she was now in his lap. The only time he broke physical contact with her was to switch the hand that was massaging her neck when he got behind her. Now he was using both hands on her neck that had released the tension the minute he touched her and he slowly moved them down to her shoulders, moving the thin straps of her tank top down so they fell and came to a rest just above her elbows.

She let out a small whimper when she felt his full lips make contact with the back of her neck. He began giving her slow, long kisses all along her neck and shoulders while his hands were rubbing sensually up and down her arms. Mercedes was so overwhelmed with want for him, that she started to move her hips to the rhythm of his hands massaging her. Sam let out a groan from deep inside when she felt her hip motion was rubbing against his ample hardness. His lips broke away from her neck and she looked up and saw their distant reflection from the mirror on the other side of the room. Mercedes watched with hitched breath as he pulled down the rest of her top and exposed her breasts. She could see his open mouthed expression behind her while feeling his breath come hot and fast against her back.

He started to run the backs of his fingers against the sides of her breasts and was tracing light circles around them, slowly making smaller and smaller circles until he was almost touching her nipples. She was at the edge of her sexual sanity and they hadn't even gotten completely undressed. When he reached her nipples and squeezed them both at the same time, she couldn't stop the cry from escaping her lips. He began to twist them gently and she wanted to keep watching in the mirror, but she threw her head back and leaned back into his body. Her head was on his chest and he hadn't let up on driving her crazy with the rolling of her nipples around between both of his thumbs and middle fingers.

She looked back and up at him and he immediately brought his full lips to hers. Her mouth was open so his tongue instantly found its way into her mouth and began rolling around hers. They were both groaning quietly as he continued his dedicated attention to her nipples. He had cupped both of her breasts into his large hands and was pulling and massaging them. They broke away from their kiss and Mercedes took that moment to turn around and face Sam.

His legs were still spread from where she had been sitting and she moved into them again and pulled off his shirt. His hair fell back into place after she had pulled it over his head except for that one piece that always fell forward. She pushed it back while looking him in the eyes, then she went in to kiss him again while rubbing her hands down his torso. She took her lips away from his and began to kiss and lick down his neck, chest and stomach. She made sure to brush her nipples against him the whole way down, sending shivers down both of their bodies. When she got to the top of his pants, she took her mouth away and unbuttoned them and slowly unzipped. She pulled down on them and he helped her by lifting his hips so she could slide them off. Now he was down to only his boxer briefs and it was his turn to undress her.

Sam sat up from leaning against the pillows and pulled her top over her breasts, her head and raised arms. The minute the tank was off, his lips were attached to her nipple. Mercedes groaned feeling his tongue and teeth gently moving back and forth on them. He moved from one to the other, sucking on them, before breaking away and gently pushing her back to a lying down position so her head was pointed towards the foot of the bed. He pulled her boy shorts down in one smooth motion and she was completely naked with the light of the moon shining down onto her body.

Sam spoke for the first time since they started, "Mercedes, you are so beautiful." She watched him as his eyes travelled from her face, all the way down her naked body and back to her eyes. She felt tingling all through her body as he took her in silently. He brought his finger to the scar that ran down her hip from where she had fallen on a fence when she was a child, and traced it back and forth. He gently turned her to her to her side so he could find the tiny mole that resided just above her right butt cheek and drew a circle around it with his finger. Then he brought her back down so she was on her back again and looked for the small dark birth mark she had on her inner thigh and brought his mouth down to it. Her thoughts of how he knew her body so well were interrupted by the sensation of electricity running up her leg from where he was kissing her inner thigh and slowly making his way up to the wet and hot area between her legs.

He began with tender licks that quickly turned to full mouthed envelopment in reaction to her moans and grinding. He took her swollen clit into his mouth and sucked with silent determination. Mercedes was trying not to crush his head with her thighs, but quickly forgot about that when he began to suck on her clit harder. She was squeezing his head between her legs and at the moment, she didn't care if it felt like she had boxed his ears. She was squirming and moving all around, and Sam kept right on with her. He didn't let go with his mouth, he knew how to hold on to her after all of their years together.

Finally, just as she was on the edge of falling into her orgasm, he let go of her and sat up.

"Sam," she was able to say throatily, "You need to get in me right now."

Sam stood up right on the bed, towering over her while he slowly began to bring down his boxer briefs. Mercedes sat up and grabbed them and pulled them all the way down quickly, not having any more patience waiting for him to be inside of her. Sam let out a small chuckle that died in his throat when she took him in her mouth and began to suck knowing exactly what he liked. He almost staggered backwards, but regained is balance grabbing onto the headboard while she went down on him. She pointed behind her to the mirror that she had been watching them in earlier and he let out a loud moan when she took him in deeper to her mouth at the same time that he saw their reflection. She went on a little longer before breaking away and lying back down onto the bed.

Sam let go of the headboard and came down to lay on top of her. He brought both of his hands to the top of her head and gently stroked her hair while face to face. He looked down at her lips and they began to kiss, gently at first, then passionately. They were in the middle of kissing when he slid inside of her. Their mutual moan vibrated each other's lips and he slowly started to move in and out of her. Mercedes broke away from the kiss to breathe and also because she was about to cum. His rhythmic pumping was bringing them both to the brink and Mercedes felt the tremor as her orgasm rolled through her entire body. Sam followed right behind with his own full body shudder before he collapsed on top of her.

They were both still breathing hard and Sam was still having the after effect trembles when Mercedes came to a shocked realization.

"Sam! You came in me and I'm not on birth control pills anymore! I don't take anything." She could barely take care of two, there was no way she could take care of three.

Sam started to laugh.

"What are you laughing at? This is serious. Oh my God," She said trying to control her panic.

"There's no possibility for you to get pregnant, Cedes. I got a vasectomy three years ago when we decided two was enough."

Mercedes was shocked.

"YOU got a vasectomy? You always said you would never let anyone snip you! You would actually feel pain for dogs that walked by that didn't have balls hanging down!"

Sam laughed again and rolled off and out of her.

"I did, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did. I would cringe when we walked by dogs because I knew you would turn around to look and see if they had a hanging sack. And if not, I knew I would hear about it for at least ten minutes."

"Well, things change I guess. It actually wasn't that bad. The worst part was leading up to it. You kept finding more and more articles for me to read that you thought helped, but it really terrified me more. But you did take really good care of me after. You ordered my favorite foods, you made sure I always had a new bag of frozen peas to keep on my swollen balls. You were good to me." He said as he reflected on his ordeal.

In Mercedes' mind, she had moved on from the shock of this new information to the hilarity that would have ensued if Gwen really had gone through with her plan to pretend she was pregnant with his baby. Thinking about that made Mercedes laugh out loud. What a stupid bitch, she thought.

"What are you laughing at?" he asked her with his own smile playing at his lips.

"I'm just still shocked, that's all," she fibbed.

Her laughter died down and she turned to her side to look at him. He was on his back, but turned his head to look at her too.

"Thank you, Sam. I know this doesn't mean that everything is back to normal, well, normal for me, but thank you for being such a good man. I am so in awe watching you as a father. You are such a natural. I'm just really really happy, and it's because of you. And those sweet kids. I can't get over them. They entertain me every single day and I fall in love with them more all the time."

He smiled back at her and kissed her in response. Then he took her into his arms and they were pressed up against each other, still completely naked. He brought them both up to sitting position and they fell back down again to the other side with their heads on the pillows. He pulled the sheet and blanket up around them and before they knew it, they were both sound asleep.

The next morning, they were still wrapped in each other's arms sleeping soundly when Mercedes woke to hear Laila singing at the top of her lungs and her little footsteps skipping towards their closed bedroom doors. She didn't have time to explain anything to Sam, she just shook him awake, mouthed "sorry" and rolled him off of the bed just as the double doors swung open and Laila came bounding in. Mercedes pulled the blankets up around her shoulders to cover the fact that she lacked clothing.

"Good morning mommy! It's Monday!"

"Morning Laila," Mercedes was trying to calm her racing heart at how close it had been to her daughter seeing her father in the bed where he didn't usually stay anymore.

"Okay, you are awake. Going to wake up Trey and race him downstairs!"

"Sounds good, honey. I'll meet you down there in a little bit. Could you just close the doors for mommy?"

"Sure!" And Laila turned around to skip out and made a big deal about closing the doors with flair.

Mercedes scrambled to the other side of the bed to check on Sam. She was laughing, but he was lying on his back with alarm in his eyes.

"Oh shit, that was close, Cedes."

"I know. I'm sorry I shoved you off."

"You had to. Thank God you woke up before she came in. Oh my God," he was running his hands through his hair.

Mercedes could see it was a close call, but he seemed much more stressed about it than she did. He actually looked upset.

"Sam, it's okay. She didn't see anything."

"I know. It's just been really delicate line for us trying to explain things to them and if they saw me here, it would just throw a whole new level of confusion at them. I should have left last night."

Mercedes tried not to be hurt by his words, but it was hard. Even though she was getting more and more accustomed to being a mother, she was still used to it being just her and Sam. Their heads were in different spots right now.

"Sam I –"

He cut her off with another quiet outburst, "My car is still parked out front! You know what, just tell them that it wasn't working and I had to call a cab to get home."

He got up and started to get dressed. Mercedes was still sitting on her knees on the bed, pretty shocked by the difference in their intimacy from last night to this morning. She slowly got up and walked into their closet to get dressed. She put on her clothes and went into the bathroom to wash her face. While she was waiting for the water to get warm, she looked in the mirror and into the bedroom and saw Sam sitting on the edge of the bed. He was doing his nervous leg bouncing while his elbows were resting on them and he was looking out of the window. She felt the water and it was hot so she turned on the cold to balance it out and washed her face. He was still sitting in the same spot when she washed away the soap and she put on her makeup.

She walked out and up to him. He finally looked at her in the eyes.

"I'm sorry, Cedes. I am just really freaked out by how close that was. It would have been really confusing to her when we haven't really figured out what we are doing yet."

"Sam, I honestly think she would have been happy to see you here. Do you see how she lights up when we are all together?"

"It's not that simple."

"I think it is."

"Well, you've been a parent for just under two weeks. I've been doing this for ten years."

Ouch. She didn't want to fight with him, but she felt like that was a low blow. No matter how much truth there was to his comment.

"I need to go see that they are getting ready for school."

Sam nodded, "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, Mercedes."

"I know," she said back. She knew he didn't mean to, but he had.

"Will you be here when I get back?"

"I have to go into the studio this morning for a meeting with someone Steve wants me to meet. But I will call you later, okay?" He stood up and brought her in for a hug.

Mercedes couldn't help but feel all of the closeness and love that occurred last night didn't exist today. That same anxious feeling she had when she was in the hospital and he told her he had to go was back. Last night felt like it had been a new step in a positive direction for them, but she was starting to doubt herself and whether that had been true. She stepped out of the hug and looked up at him.

"Sam, just please don't withdrawal from me. I feel like we took some huge steps in a good direction last night and I hope you don't regret anything, okay?" She brought her hand to his face so he would look down at her. He did, and while she still saw the flicker of uneasiness in his eyes, she also saw his face relax.

"Cedes, I will never regret last night," he said and bent down to give her a forehead kiss.

Mercedes scrunched up her nose not being satisfied with such a chaste kiss, but she heard the kids start to argue downstairs and she had to go.

"I'll talk to you later. You'd better get down there before World War III breaks out."

"Okay, bye Sam," and she turned to go. At the door, she turned to him before opening it, "Remember what I said about Gwen, I don't trust her."

"I remember, and I think there's nothing to be worried about with her, but I've got my radar on, okay?"

"Okay, good. Bye, Sam."

She didn't end up hearing from him the rest of that day. And by the next day, she was so filled with anxiety, that after she got the kids to school, she drove home and called Quinn to see if she could come over for dinner that night since the kids were going to be with Sam. Quinn went off for about five minutes straight about the message she got from her about Gwen and then said she would be there. Then she called Kurt at his shop.

After three rings, "Klaine's where you'll always –"

"Kurt! It's Mercedes," she cut him off.

"Oh God, thank you for not letting me go through my whole spiel. Okay, first of all: loved your party, except for that whore, Gwen."

"I take it the shop is empty?" Mercedes laughed.

"No! There is a lovely couple here, but they are eating outside. Where was I? Okay, party was beautiful. Sam made me want to marry him with that song he sang to you. Secondly, what happened after we left? Have you hit it?"

"Kurt!"

"Oh shit, Mercedes, you HAVE! I can tell by the raised tone you used at the beginning of my name and the distinct "t" at the end! Hold on while I do a 'get it girl' dance."

"Kurt, you are a fool!" she yelled into the phone laughing when she heard the phone clattering against the counter and heard him snapping his fingers while probably doing a ridiculous dance behind the counter.

"Kurt," she yelled again, "Pick up the damn phone!"

He came back on the line, "There was my exercise for the day. Now third, why the hell didn't you come in to the shop this morning OR yesterday?"

Instead of answering him, she asked, "Can you come over for dinner tonight with me and Quinn?"

"Dinner with my two favorite ladies in Nashville? Did you have to ask? Of course I will be there. But only if you promise to tell me every single detail of your Sam sex."

"No way, that is my husband! I am not going to tell you the details about sex with him!"

Mercedes heard Kurt clicking his tongue, "Caught you, girl. I KNEW you had sex with him. I'm there. I'm coming tonight at 5 and I don't care if that's too early. Gotta go. Bye."

She took her phone away from her ear and looked at it shaking her head.

Now she had to figure out dinner. Pasta was easy. She found pasta and jarred sauce in the pantry. Dinner – done. She went down to the wine cellar and brought out three bottles of wine. Might as well have more than enough chilled and ready.

She had been fielding calls from Dr. St. James' office for the past week to schedule a follow up appointment to come in. She didn't know exactly why she was so scared to go in, but she told herself she would answer their next call; after the one that had come in today.

Mercedes spent the afternoon trying the opening doors thing again to see if it triggered anything. When she opened the laundry room door, the scent from the detergent seemed to remind her of something. There was a memory at the back of her mind trying to push its way forward, but the more she concentrated on it, the further it seemed to retreat. She could come back to that room later.

She tried calling her parents, but both of their cells went to voicemail. She decided to go for a walk around their property. She laced up her shoes and headed out of the back doors and down the patio steps. She decided to go around the perimeter and go further inside to the middle if she saw anything interesting. She had been walking for about five minutes when she saw a small tree hidden in the middle of a clump of larger ones with what looked to be a hundred or more strings tied to the branches. She walked up to it and saw many different colors and types of strings being softly lifted by the afternoon breeze.

"What is this?" she asked out loud to herself. She was walking all around the tree trying to find something, she didn't even know what, when she saw the corner of a plastic baggie with paper enclosed sticking out from under a rock at the base of the trunk. She lifted the rock, opened the ziplock bag, took out the piece of paper and unfolded it. Her hand went to her mouth as she read the child's writing:

_This tree is for me, Trey, and my little sister Laila. We will come out here when we can sneak away and make a wish that our mom and dad will be in love again and dad will come back to live with us. Laila wanted me to write that she said we should tie a ribbon for each time we make a wish to make it come true. This is our wish tree._

And their two names were written by x's. Trey's tight and neat and Laila's huge with one "a" that was backwards.

Mercedes hugged the paper to her chest as she started to cry. She sat down on the ground and looked up at their children's beautiful wish tree. She made her own wish for her and Sam to be together again. The sunlight was shining down on the dancing strings and they looked brilliant against the blue sky. She didn't know how long she sat there, but eventually she got up and put the paper back into the baggie and under the rock then headed back up to the house to get ready for her friends to come over for dinner.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or What Alice Forgot or any of its characters.

**Thank you for all of your reviews and alerts. I love reading every single one! I hope you enjoy.**

**RS/Samcedes girls: How wonderful was that receipt from yesterday? I'm still so excited. Love you guys. Xoxoxoxo.**

"Listen," Kurt was saying to Mercedes and Quinn, "All I know is, you two are husband and wife. You could have called him just as easily."

The three friends were sitting on the bed after eating Kurt's spaghetti sauce he had insisted on making after seeing what Mercedes was planning on serving. Mercedes had received a verbal beat down from him after they came into the kitchen and he saw the "offensive bland ass jar of red shit", as he called it. He had grabbed both of their hands and stormed out of the house, muttering the whole drive to the store about how he was going to take it upon himself to teach Mercedes how to cook.

During dinner, Quinn had declared she was only having one glass of wine but three hours later, she was currently on her third. As were Kurt and Mercedes.

"Wait, wait, wait, Kurt. Hold on. Let's start from the beginning," Quinn said from her reclining position against the pillows, "So you and Sam had an amazing night together –"

"Hot sex," Kurt interrupted.

"Kurt! I'm not going to - oh screw it. Yes, it was hot sex. Amazing."

"Now we are on the right track. So, night was full of fireworks. What happened in the morning?"

"I shoved him off the bed because Laila was about to walk in."

"And Laila didn't see anything, but after she left, Sam was acting completely different."

"Yes. Cold and distant. He would hardly look at me."

"But he was freaked out because you two almost got walked in on by your six year old daughter. Who, by the way, doesn't know you are thinking of reconciling. Who also doesn't know that you lost your memory. Who would have been very confused seeing you in bed – naked – with her dad since she has been trying to get used to this new routine of her parents living in separate homes."

He looked back and forth between the two women waiting for their counter argument.

"Okay, even if we give him that, he should have called," Mercedes said back to Kurt.

"You said he had an important meeting at work, right?"

"Even if he did," Quinn started, "He said he was going to call, so he should have."

"I just can't deal with you ladies. You aren't dating! This is your husband. You know what? Even when Blaine and I were dating, if he said he was going to call me and he didn't? You'd better believe I was calling his ass."

Mercedes glared back at Kurt for blaming her for her blue feelings the past couple of days.

"You think I should have called?"

"Yes!" Kurt yelled.

"No! Sam should have called her!" Quinn was arguing back. The two of them were going back and forth and didn't notice Mercedes lean over to the side bed table and grab her phone. She pushed the button on the phone and brought it to life.

"No, Quinn, just no," Kurt said and glanced over at Mercedes, "Mercedes? What are you doing?"

"You wanted me to call him? Well here I go!"

"But you are drunk! So am I! So is Quinn! Come to think of it, we need to take a couple weeks off of getting drunk, this is twice in one week."

"No, Kurt, this is perfect. Cedes, call him! This is the perfect time. You are loose and you can talk to him freely. Wait –" Quinn put her hand in the air and leaned over to put her glass down on the side table at her end. "Don't call him, let's GO to his place and talk to him face to face!"

While this plan would have seemed doomed from the start to them if they had not been drinking white wine all night, at this moment, it seemed like the cleverest thing Quinn could have said.

"I'll call the cab!" Kurt exclaimed as Mercedes and Quinn scrambled off the bed. The two women were standing with their arms slung around each other's shoulders while they waited for Kurt to finish the call to the cab dispatcher.

"It's going to be 20 minutes," he said in a disappointed voice.

The women stood in their same spots arguing about whether they should just call Blaine to drive them over or not with Kurt; who was trying to shut them down by telling them he would outright refuse. Before they knew it, the doorbell rang and they all looked at each other and smiled.

The three of them looked like teenagers as they ran down the stairs to open the front door for their driver. He greeted them and turned to go to the driver's side while they all piled in the back. Mercedes she realized she knew where Sam lived, but not his physical address. So she spent a couple of minutes going through her phone contacts to find the address to give the cabbie. Once given, they were on the road on the way to where Sam lived. They were all excited and gabbing away the drive over, but when they got to the tall secured building, they fell into silence.

"What the fuck are we doing here?" Kurt asked them.

Mercedes burst out laughing, "I don't know," she said between gulps.

"Should we get out?" Quinn asked.

"Yes, I'll call Blaine to pick us up if we decide to not do anything."

They paid the driver and all three got out and stood on the street in front of the ritzy building looking like the confused three people they were, when they heard a car slam from around the corner. Even though they weren't doing anything wrong, the three of them started to panic a little, feeling like they needed to hide someplace. But there was nowhere to go, so they just stood there with Kurt shushing them and telling them to act like they belonged there.

They heard clicking heels and a woman talking on her cell phone.

"I'm here. No, he doesn't know I'm coming, but those damn kids are asleep by now. I will figure it out, okay?" After a pause, "I told you she remembers!"

"No fucking way," Kurt said under his breath.

Just as Kurt uttered the words, Gwen came strutting around the corner in a mini dress and thigh high fuck me boots. She stopped short when she looked up and saw the three of them waiting outside of Sam's building.

"I have to go," she said into her phone and hung up. She still held it in her hands while the four of them had a staring showdown.

No one had said anything when Quinn's voice shot through the night like a bang.

"What in the fuck do you think you're doing here?" She yelled at the top of her lungs down the sidewalk.

Mercedes' shock gave way to fury that this woman was planning on dropping by Sam's place after she thought she had scared her off.

"If you take one more step in this direction, I cannot be responsible for what is going to happen to you," Mercedes said with a control in her voice that she did not feel.

"That's right, bitch, you need to turn your hoochie ass around and go get right back into that car of yours," Kurt warned.

"Look, I don't know what the hell you guys are doing out here, but Sam called me and invited me to come join him tonight. Sorry to disappoint."

The three of them looked back and forth at each other at the blatant lie she had just dropped.

"Bitch, we heard you tell your friend that he didn't know you were coming," Kurt responded.

"I don't know what you think you heard, but he's expecting me." Gwen said and started to walk towards them.

Quinn was about to launch herself at Gwen, but Mercedes grabbed her.

"No, if Sam is expecting her, let's wait for her to call him and see how the conversation goes."

Gwen stopped walking again.

"You know what, forget it. If you guys are going to be out here acting like assholes, I'm just going to send him a message that I can't make it." She said to the trio.

"That's what I thought," Mercedes said back to her.

"You are so lucky that Cedes grabbed me because I was going to kick your skanky ass," Quinn yelled to her retreating back.

"FUCK YOU!" Kurt added as she turned around the corner.

Just as Kurt was yelling it, they heard the door to the building open and they all looked over to see Sam standing in the open doorway in basketball shorts and a fitted tank. Both Mercedes and Kurt drew in sharp breaths.

"What are you guys doing here? And who are you yelling at?"

"Sam, um, how did you know we were here?" Mercedes asked him.

"Vince, the doorman, called me to tell me you were down here, Mercedes, yelling down the street at someone."

All three of them looked at each other to see who would answer first.

Mercedes wiped the shock off of her face at seeing Sam down there and said, "We need to talk."

Sam just looked at all of them and held open the door more and motioned for them to come in. The three filed in past Sam and when they walked past Vince, Mercedes gave him a quick sorry. They all rode up the elevator in silence and Mercedes shot Kurt and Quinn a look when she realized they were trying hard not to laugh. Quinn's face was in her hands and her whole body was shaking and Kurt was looking up at the ceiling blinking over and over again with his lips drawn in over his teeth to prevent his laughter. And when Sam let out a quiet closed mouth burp, it opened the flood gates. Kurt and Quinn were hanging on to each other doubled over in cackling laughter while apologizing at the same time.

Mercedes felt a smile tug at her lips, but she started to take deep breaths instead, to prevent herself from dissolving into hysterics like her friends. Sam was watching them all in silent amusement until they got to his floor and they got out.

Even though his was the only condo on the entire floor, there was a door he had to unlock after leaving the elevator. He put the key in the door and opened it to let them all in. The place was beautiful with floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the Cumberland River.

"Oh my God, Sam. This is beautiful," Mercedes said as she walked to the windows to look down onto the water. Kurt and Quinn joined her and they all stood silently in awe of the beauty.

They were interrupted by Sam clearing his throat. "So what's going on guys?"

They all turned around and Quinn and Kurt decided to make themselves busy asking if they could give themselves a tour around this condo.

"Just don't go in the two closed doors, that's where the kids are," he answered them.

Sam and Mercedes watched them lock arms and go down the hallway then they turned to look at each other.

"I'm starting to worry about why you are so afraid of starting over with me," Mercedes said honestly.

Sam regarded her quietly for a moment before answering her.

"I've been thinking a lot about what you said over the last couple of days. I thought I had more insight on our life than you, so I assumed I would know what would be best for everyone. But what you said, that it really is a simple answer, hit home for me later. I'm still in love with you, Cedes. I have never fallen out of love with you even though we were going through this separation. I just wanted to protect myself from being heartbroken again."

Mercedes was wringing her hands and filled with such relief and happiness by what he was telling her, that she couldn't form the proper words.

Finally, she was able to speak, "Are you saying to me what I think you are saying?"

Sam smiled, "What do you think I am saying to you?"

"I think you are saying to me that we are back together, officially."

"That's what I'm saying to you."

Mercedes couldn't stop her body from running to him and throwing herself in his arms. She was kissing his chest, his neck, his lips. He held her tightly and returned her kisses. They were interrupted by hearing Kurt let out a happy exclamation and Quinn hitting him in the arm.

They looked over at the two of them peaking around the hallway wall and Sam waved for them to come out. They both ran up and threw their arms around the two of them, making it a group hug.

"Alright, now you guys need to tell me who the hell you were cussing out downstairs," Sam said after a long group embrace.

"Um, well," Mercedes started.

"Mercedes, you need to tell him," Kurt said and turned to Sam, "That Gwen bitch is not your friend, Sam."

Sam looked at him, then at Mercedes, then Quinn.

"Tell him, Cedes," Quinn gently urged.

"I remembered something the morning after my party," she said and looked at him to make sure he wasn't upset at her for not sharing this before now.

"You remembered something recent?" He asked.

"I did," and she told him all about Gwen, from the memory to the almost fight outside his condo.

Kurt and Quinn were shaking their heads in renewed anger hearing it told again, but Sam looked shocked.

"I trusted her," he said, stunned.

"She's not a good person, Sam," Mercedes replied.

He was still trying to process it when Kurt started going on about how he would have loved to see her pretend to be pregnant with non-existent fertile Sam sperm.

Sam looked even more shocked, "You told them about my vasectomy?"

"I knew already," Quinn said.

"It was a secret?" Mercedes asked seriously.

Sam laughed, "I guess not," he continued to laugh.

"I need to tell Steve," he said in realization.

All three of them were nodding their heads in agreement.

"Bitch needs to go before she tries to do it to someone else," Kurt said.

"How did you guys get here?" Sam asked.

"We took a cab," Mercedes answered, "I don't know who's idea it was to come here unannounced, but whichever one of you it was, brilliant!" To that, Kurt and Quinn shared a high five.

"I will take you guys home. Mercedes, do you want to stay here tonight?"

Mercedes felt her whole body swell with happiness.

"Yes," she said in a hushed and happy voice.

"Alright, let's go guys. I'm driving you both home." Sam turned to put on a light jacket and grab the keys while the three friends said bye with giggles and hugs.

"Get it, girl," Kurt said in a whisper that was much louder than he realized.

"Love you, Cedes," Quinn said as she hugged her.

Then they both turned around and headed out of the door with Sam following behind.

"See you soon," Sam said before turning to leave with her friends.

Mercedes smiled and turned away from the door. She began to walk around the condo, taking in the home Sam had been living in for the last half year. The view was so stunning, Mercedes felt like she could stare out of the windows for hours.

Then she walked down the hallway to peak in on Trey and Laila. They were both sleeping soundly in their respective rooms. She saw that Sam had taken a great deal of time to make the rooms look as similar to their ones at home as he could. Such a wonderful father, she thought for the thousandth time.

She looked in his bedroom and saw it only housed a queen sized bed and a dresser. That was pretty much it. The room felt so vacant and dismal, it filled her with sadness that this was where he turned in for the night.

"Soon you will be home, Sam," she said out loud.

She went back out to the livingroom and sat on the couch. She tried keeping her eyes open, but her lids were dropping and her head kept lolling forward and from side to side as she was unable to fight off sleep any longer.

Mercedes woke with a start some time later by her cell ringing loudly from her pocket. She was instantly awake and aware that Sam wasn't back yet. She frantically pulled it out and answered without looking.

"Sam?" she said anxiously into the phone.

"Mrs. Evans?" An unfamiliar deep accented voice said to her from the other side of the line.

She was immediately filled with dread, "Yes." She managed to answer.

"My name is Officer Andy Martinez. There has been an accident. I need you to come to Nashville General Hospital as soon as you can."

"Who was in the accident?" Mercedes was shouting into the phone while running around the room not knowing what to do first.

"I can give you details when you come down to the hospital, ma'am."

"Please just tell me who was in the accident and if -" she had to pause as a sob erupted out of her throat, "and if anyone has died."

He paused before saying, "It was a two car accident. The names of people involved are," she could hear him rustling papers, "Sam Evans, Quinn Fabray-Puckerman, Kurt Hummel and Gwen Reynolds. There were no fatalities but numerous injuries. Please come down now, Mrs. Evans."

Mercedes said a silent prayer of thanks that her loved ones were still alive and told Officer Martinez she would be there right away.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or What Alice Forgot or any of its characters.

**Thank you for reading and reviewing everyone! Sorry for how the last chapter ended. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!**

**RS/Samcedes girls: I love you guys. Xoxoxo.**

Mercedes was hyperventilating. She couldn't focus on anything and her lungs felt like they were constricting as if she were having an asthma attack. She couldn't stay in one place and was walking in staggered steps in tight circles. She clutched her fist to her heart and the phone dropped to the ground. The clattering of the phone on the hardwood floor sent a jolt through her body and snapped her to attention.

Bits and pieces of rational thoughts started to make their way through to her terrified brain. She needed to get to the hospital immediately, but she didn't have a car. She couldn't wake the kids to this, so she needed someone to come and take care of them. But everyone she loved and trusted was in that car, she thought desperately with renewed panic. She had to get control of herself in order to get to that hospital.

"Think, Mercedes!" She said out loud. She was pacing back and forth and glanced out of the windows. The river that had seemed so magical just that evening now looked dark and menacing.

"Sam's parents," she said and sprinted back to pick up her phone from the ground and pushed the button and frantically brought up the contacts. Finally, she saw Mary E. and pressed her trembling pointer finger on her name to dial.

The phone rang three times before there was an answer and Mercedes couldn't stop the sob from escaping that had welled in her throat when she heard her mother-in-law's voice answer.

"Mercedes? What is going on?" Mary Evans was asking her with an escalating rise of fear coming through in her voice.

Mercedes tried to calm her full body trembles and crying so she could answer.

"Mary, Sam has been in a car accident," she choked out, "I need to get to the hospital, but the kids are asleep and I can't think straight. I need to get there –"

She heard the rustling of the blanket being thrown off through the line and Mary waking her husband up from sleep.

"Is he okay? What did they say, Mercedes?" her voice was getting higher and she was almost yelling into the phone.

"The officer wouldn't tell me, only that he is alive."

"Okay, are you at the house or at Sam's?" She asked Mercedes.

"Sam's."

"We will come there," she said to Mercedes. Then she could hear Mary take the phone away from her mouth as she spoke quickly to Sam's father, "Dwight, Sam's been in an accident. Mercedes and I will go to the hospital, but you need to watch the kids," she came back on the line. "Mercedes, we will be there in 5 minutes. Dwight will stay there and you and I will get to the hospital. Oh God –" she said breaking down into sobs. Then Mercedes heard the phone disconnect and there was silence.

How was she supposed to stay there for five minutes? Her mind started to go back to the fear of what was happening with the three people she loved so dearly. Her thoughts were interrupted by her phone ringing in her hands. Puck. She swiped her finger across his name and answered.

He was already talking before she could say anything.

"Fuck! Mercedes, oh my God. Quinn. I'm fucking losing my mind," Puck couldn't continue talking because he was overcome by sobs.

"Puck," Mercedes started but she had to stop because of her own tears, "Puck, did the police call you? Are you on your way to the hospital?"

She just heard heartbreaking guttural sounds from the other end, before Puck let out a roaring yell and came back on the line.

"The police called and won't tell me shit. I'm driving there now. Mercedes, I cannot lose Quinn. She –" he couldn't continue.

"Puck, we just have to believe in the best until we can get there, okay? I'm coming as soon as Sam's parents get here."

Puck let out a feeble "Okay," before he disconnected.

"Shit!" Mercedes cried.

She realized she needed to call Blaine to see if he was on his way too. She pulled up his phone number and dialed. It rang four times before turning over to voicemail. She hung up and dialed again. Same thing. She repeated again. Same result.

Just then, she heard the elevator outside of the condo chime quietly and she sprinted for the door and swung it open just as Sam's dad came bounding out completely disheveled and with red rimmed eyes. Mercedes flew into his arms and they hugged each other tightly for a little bit before he pulled away and squeezed her arms.

"Go, Cedes."

She couldn't do anything but nod and the tears were pouring out of both of their eyes. She ran into the elevator and turned to see him walk into Sam's place to watch over his grandchildren just before the elevator doors slid shut.

When she arrived at the bottom floor, she pried open the slowly moving doors with her hands and jumped out before running out of the doors to Sam's parent's waiting car. She got in and she and Mary Evans locked eyes and grabbed each other's hands as she pulled away from the curb.

There was nothing the two women could say to each other and it seemed they both preferred to look straight ahead and not try to make conversation. The radio was set to a country station and quietly played in the background. When the song was over, the dj came on the air. The usually chipper radio voice was glum and Mercedes started to focus on what they were saying. She leaned forward and turned up the volume.

" - just getting word into the station about some breaking news. We have not confirmed this with the Associated Press yet, we are going off of what we are seeing come through our local news. There are reports that country star, Sam Evans, has been involved in a car accident. We don't know details yet, but we will get them for you as soon as we can. Again, Sam Evans has been involved in a car accident and has been admitted into the hospital. We will keep on this developing story and bring you up to date with any new information as it comes in. For now, please pray for him and his family."

Mercedes and Mary looked at each other and both of them began to cry silently. They gripped their clasped hands tighter as Mary sped down the streets to get to the hospital where Sam was hurt.

As they turned the corner onto the street to get to Nashville General's ER entrance, they saw two local news vans already there and setting up. The camera crews were out and the reporters had already started their coverage.

"How in the hell did they hear about this already?" Mercedes said more to herself, but Mary answered.

"They listen to the police dispatch frequency. They probably knew before Sam even got here."

Mary drove into the small parking lot just to the side of the entrance and thankfully found a spot quickly. Both women were already taking off their seatbelts and ready to open their doors before she put the car in park and cut the engine. Mercedes flew out of the passenger seat and ran to the sliding doors with Mary right behind her.

The ER that she had only been in a couple of weeks ago was in complete chaos. There were people, who she could only assume were reporters, getting yelled at to leave by the hospital staff, she could hear another man yelling from the other side and the receptionists at the greeting counter were frazzled. Mercedes ran up to the check in desk and started in immediately.

"I need to know what the status is on three people who were admitted into your ER tonight." She said quickly and frantically. The chaos around her was starting to make her feel even more upset than she had been before.

The woman didn't look up, keeping her eyes on the computer. She was stressed herself and didn't bother trying to hide it.

"What are the names –" she cut off short when she looked up and saw Mercedes standing in front of her.

"Oh! Um, I'm sorry, they don't give me any updates, but the doctor should be out soon to talk to you now that you are here. I will let them know his family is here."

Mercedes' unease did not lift.

"Also, we need to know about Quinn Fabray, I mean Fabray-Puckerman and Kurt Hummel." She felt Mary's hand on her back and drew some strength from her touch.

"I will see what I can do." The receptionist replied.

Just then, Mercedes heard the man yelling again and turned to see Puck red-faced and being restrained by two orderlies.

"Just tell me what the fuck is going on with my wife!" he was yelling at the top of his lungs.

Mercedes ran over to him and when he saw her, his whole body seemed to deflate and became weak in the arms of the two men holding him. When they felt the slack, and released his arms. Puck slowly came over to Mercedes and they fell into each other's arms. Puck was quiet except for the shaking wracking his body.

"Mercedes, no one is telling me shit. They won't even tell me if she's alive!"

"I know she's alive, Puck. The officer who called me said they are all alive. Okay? We just need to find out how seriously they are hurt."

Puck pulled away and looked at her with bloodshot and puffy eyes.

"She's alive?"

"Yes, Puck." She couldn't help but start crying again. She was trying to push the horrible images that kept popping into her mind of the three of them stuck and injured in Sam's car before help came.

She saw the sliding double doors of the entrance open and Blaine came running in. He was frantic and his hair was puffed out in all directions. Blaine looked around fast, not really seeing anyone with panic and he just stood frozen in place.

"Blaine!" Mercedes yelled to him from where they were standing and when he saw her, his face crumbled and he began sobbing as he walked over. Mercedes walked towards him and met him in the middle. They hugged and he rested his head on her shoulder, weeping. She wanted to do exactly the same thing, but felt like she needed to be strong for both men.

"I got a call from the police and he just said Kurt was in a car accident. I don't even know how hurt he is. I can't even think about what I would do if I lost him –" he couldn't go on.

"The officer who called me said they are all alive, Blaine. So let's just focus on that and hopefully someone will come out soon and tell us more."

Blaine just nodded into her shoulder then pulled himself away. He looked over at Puck and they came together for a hug too. Mercedes looked back at Sam's mom and she noticed how she had hardly changed physically over the past ten years. But right now, her confident air she typically displayed was gone completely. Her shoulders were slack and she was just staring at the ground wringing her hands together. Mercedes saw quiet tears rolling down her cheeks. She looked up and met Mercedes' eyes and they shared a silent moment before she came closer and they held hands again.

Puck had started pacing and Blaine was sitting with his head in his hands. Mercedes looked around and it seemed as though the hospital staff had gotten the reporters out and there were now two security guards standing at the entrance of the hospital. They were there for another ten minutes before the doors leading into the patient area opened and a nurse walked out. All four of them rushed up to him and began asking him questions at the same time.

"I'm sorry, I am coming out here to talk to a family member about a: Kirsty Elliott."

"Is there any way you can tell us information about Sam Evans, Quinn Puckerman or Kurt Hummel?" Mercedes asked exasperatedly.

He looked like he was about to say something, but the doors opened and another nurse came out and walked past them so he stopped.

"I'm sorry, I don't have any information." And he turned to go look for the Elliott family.

"Fuck!" Puck yelled and he looked like he was going to punch someone or something. Mercedes put a hand on his back to try to calm him.

The nurse came back past them with the family he was looking for and put in a code to open the doors. When the doors swung open, Mercedes saw her ER doctor from her stay there walking down the hallway.

"Dr. Cullen!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.

The red-headed doctor turned around and saw Mercedes and her three distraught companions standing terrified in the lobby. Mercedes' heart broke as the doors closed and she saw her doctor through the small windows and it looked like she was about to keep walking, but then she changed her mind and made her way towards the group.

They rushed up as one unit to reach her when she came through the doors.

"Dr. Cullen, my husband and my two dear friends were admitted after getting into a car accident. We haven't been told anything except they are alive. Can you tell us anything?"

"I only have one of them as my patient, Quinn Fabray-Puckerman," she said and Puck grabbed Mercedes' hand, "She has a neck injury as the result of severe whiplash, she has tinnitus in her right ear; hopefully this will not cause permanent hearing loss, and she has lacerations on her face and neck. Overall, for this type of crash, she came out with relatively moderate injuries."

"Can we please come back to see her?" Puck's relief could be seen physically.

"Are you her husband?"

"Yes."

"Yes, you can come back with me, but I'm sorry, it can only be family," Dr. Cullen said to the rest of them and she genuinely did look regretful that she could not let them all back.

"Dr. Cullen, can you please tell us anything about Sam and Kurt Hummel?"

"I don't know the status of either of them. I'm sorry," she said again.

Blaine started to cry again and pushed his fists into his eyes as he turned away in frustration and walked away from the group.

"You can come with me Mr. Puckerman," Dr. Cullen said and she turned to put in the code to open the doors.

Puck turned to Mercedes and brought her in for a hug and whispered into her ear, "I will find out what is going on with Sam and Kurt and text you."

"Please give Quinn a hug from me," Mercedes said in response. She felt relief at hearing Quinn had moderate injuries, but she needed to hear about Sam and Kurt soon. She watched as Puck caught up with Dr. Cullen as they walked through the closing double doors.

"I just wish they would come and get us," Mary was saying.

Mercedes was trying to steel herself for when the next person came out to talk to them. Blaine was back to sitting down with his head in his hands.

She kept thinking of Sam. She prayed that he was okay and she just needed to see him.

The doors opened and two more nurses came out. Blaine stood up and came back to stand next to Mercedes.

"Are you the family of Kurt Hummel?" the nurse asked Blaine.

"Yes! Yes, I'm his partner. Please, can you take me to see him?"

The two nurses looked back and forth at each other.

"I'm sorry, but are you his family?"

Mercedes was incredulous, "YES! He just told you." She looked at Blaine and saw he was starting to panic as the realization dawned on him that there was a possibility they would not let him in because he was not legally considered family.

"Please," Blaine pleaded in the most heartbreaking voice she had ever heard. Mercedes put her arm around him and looked back at the nurses. One looked like she was going to say they couldn't do it, but the other spoke up before she could say anything.

"Okay, come with me."

He cried out a thank you and gave Mercedes a hug and followed the nurse through the doors.

"You are Sam Evans' family?" The nurse asked.

"Yes," Mercedes answered, "I am his wife and this is his mother."

"Okay, please follow me."

The two women clasped hands again and followed the nurse. Mercedes simultaneously felt like her heart was going to stop and also beat out of her chest at the same time. She couldn't stop shaking and had to consciously put one foot in front of the other.

She kept silently repeating the same prayer, "Please let Sam be okay. Please let Sam be okay." They were walking for a while and left the ER to another wing. Finally, the nurse stopped in front of a private room and opened the door slowly. Mercedes and Mary walked in at the same time through the large door and it quietly clicked closed behind them. There was a curtain drawn around his bed, and when they came around the edge of the curtain, she saw Sam asleep in the bed with gauze wrapped around his head. His left arm was in a cast and he had bruising and cuts all down the left side of his face.

Mercedes heard his mom let out a small whimper and she ran up to the bed. She wanted to go up too, but held back so his mother could have a moment with her son. Mary took his right hand in both of hers and brought it to her cheek. She looked down at his face and then turned to wave Mercedes over.

Mercedes took a tentative two steps, but then her body propelled itself forward until she was quickly standing next to his damaged left side. Her hand went to the hair at the top of his head that was not matted with dark dried blood. It was only a small area of dark blonde hair, but she stroked it as the tears started streaming down her face once again. She brought her hand down and gently rested it against his chest and he started to stir.

The machines he was hooked up to started to beep fast and loud. Mercedes stepped away from the bed and looked back at the nurse. When she looked back at Sam, his eyes were open and he was looking at the cast on his arm with alarm until he saw Mercedes. She instantly came back to his side and reached her hand over to stroke his undamaged right cheek. He locked eyes with her and let out a breath. The machine started to slow.

"Mercedes," he said looking at her, "Are Quinn and Kurt okay?"

"Quinn is, I haven't heard about Kurt," Mercedes answered him and he instantly became agitated and upset.

"Honey," his mom started to say to him and he looked at her quickly, not realizing she was in the room until she spoke, "Please, you need to keep your heart rate down. We haven't spoken to the doctor yet, but you need to steady yourself."

"Hi mom."

His greeting sent her into another round of crying and she was trying to control it by wiping her tears away quickly and bringing a tissue to her nose, but it wasn't helping.

"It's okay, mom. I'm okay."

There was a quick knock on the door and they heard the door open and the doctor and nurse were speaking to each other quietly on the other side of the curtain. Mercedes leaned towards them to see if she could hear what they were saying, but it was no use. She looked back at Sam and he was wincing while trying to adjust his body.

"Sam, let me help you," Mercedes and his mom leaned him forward gently while adjusting his pillows behind his back and helping to scoot him towards the head of the bed more. His eyes were watering from pain when Mercedes saw the pain drip button draped over the back of his pillows. She brought it forward.

"Sam, I think this is for the pain."

"It is," a male voice from behind them said, "You can push it Mr. Evans, it will never give you an unsafe amount."

Mercedes didn't wait for Sam to do it, she pushed the button down hard to help alleviate his pain.

"Mr. Evans, I'm glad to see you are awake. I'm Dr. Howell," he turned to Mercedes and Mary and gave them a nod before continuing, "You are extremely lucky to come away with the injuries you have from what could have been a devastating accident. You have a minor concussion from impact, lacerations on your face and neck area, your left arm is broken in two places. We had to stitch up your head wound, so there is a section of your hair that is shaved under the bandages. Over all, there are no serious ongoing injuries and we are very thankful for that."

Sam was watching the doctor as he spoke and Mercedes was listening to him intently. "No serious ongoing injuries" was what she held on to.

"We are going to have you stay overnight, but will most likely release you tomorrow."

"Do you know how Kurt Hummel is? Or the other driver? I assume they were drunk, but I hope they are okay too."

"You don't know who the other driver is, Sam?" Mercedes looked at him.

"No."

"It was Gwen," she said as her rage started to come back to the surface for what this woman could have taken from her tonight.

Mercedes watched Sam as the realization that this vehicle crash couldn't have been an accident sank in.

"I can check on Mr. Hummel for you," the doctor said, "I would like you to try to sleep. If you need anything, push that button at the side of your bed and a nurse will come." And he turned to leave.

They watched him go and both women looked at each other.

"Are you saying this was on purpose?" Mary Evans asked with an icy cold voice Mercedes had never heard from her before. But she could imagine the threat to her son's life would bring that out in a mother.

"I think so. I haven't talked to the police yet, but when they said she was one of the four admitted here to the hospital, I just knew."

"Where is she," Mary asked.

"I don't know, but after we hear about Kurt, I'm finding her." Mercedes responded. She was going to find her in this hospital and she was going to do more than just scare her.

"I'm coming with you," Sam said.

"No, Sam –" Mercedes started, but she was cut off by Sam.

"I'm coming with you."

"Then we'll find a wheelchair," she told him.

"I'm going to step out to call your dad and tell him you are okay. Well, for the most part," Mary smiled down at her son and leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek. Then she turned to leave the room.

Mercedes looked down at Sam.

"Sam, I was so scared."

He motioned for her to come lay next to him. She walked around the bed so she could be on his right side and he opened his arm for her to lie against him. She slid onto the bed with care and rested her head in the crook of his arm and draped her leg over his, then wrapped her arm gently over his upper stomach. He squeezed her arm with his hand and she pressed herself in even closer to him.

"Sam, Kurt has to be okay."

"I know."

"How did it happen?"

"We were on our way to drop off Kurt first and as I was driving through an intersection, I saw lights coming towards us fast on the right side. My first instinct was the push down on the accelerator because the car was heading right to Quinn's door. So I floored it and the car hit us on the back passenger side. Thank God Kurt was behind me, but the impact sent us into a pole on the other side of the street. Then I knocked out."

The anxiety came back at hearing him say they hit a pole. She began praying again for Kurt to be okay.

"I love you, Sam."

"I love you too, Cedes."

She lifted her head up and brought her lips to his for a kiss. It started as slow gentle ones, but quickly turned deeper. Her slightly parted lips were pushed open by his tongue demanding entrance. They were still kissing heavily when there was a knock at the door.

She pulled away and was going to stand up again, but he held her firmly in place lying next to him.

The door opened and they heard Blaine's voice, "Hello, it's Blaine," he said from the other side of the curtain.

"Blaine!" Mercedes launched herself up and this time Sam let go.

He came around to where they were and Mercedes was in his arms the second he did.

"Kurt. Please, tell us Kurt is okay," she said and pulled herself away to look him in his bloodshot eyes.

"He is, but he's pissed. He has a broken leg and he's demanding to talk to a plastic surgeon about the cuts to his face."

"Oh thank God," Mercedes breathed out and brought him in for a huge hug. They held on tight to each other and she whispered to him, "We're all okay."

They released each other and he gave her a smile then turned to Sam.

"How are you?"

"I was in pain, but Cedes pushed my drugs button, so I'm feeling pretty good."

"He has a broken arm, a slight concussion and stitches in his head."

"We are so lucky tonight," Blaine said shaking his head, "Well, lucky and thankful that you were driving, Sam. Kurt said you sped up as soon as you realized what was about to happen. Was the other driver drunk running that red light?"

Sam and Mercedes gave each other a look.

"What? What is it?" Blaine asked.

"The other driver was Gwen," Mercedes answered.

The facial change in Blaine when Mercedes said that sentence was astonishing.

"What." He said in a dark and stony voice.

"It was Gwen," Mercedes said in just above a whisper.

"Is she at this hospital?"

"Yes."

Blaine nodded his head slowly.

"I'm going to go back to Kurt right now, but we are all going to pay her a visit later. That bitch had better still be alive."

He came over the Sam's bedside and took his good hand and gave it a squeeze.

"Thank you for protecting Kurt as much as you could and keeping him alive."

Sam nodded and looked back up at him, "I wish I could have gotten past her car."

"You saved their lives, Sam. I will be forever grateful to you."

Blaine went to Mercedes and gave her a hug. Then he turned to leave the room.

"Come here," he said to her.

She went back to her position next to him when the door opened again. Mary came in and walked around the curtain.

"Oh! I'm sorry I –"

"Mom, it's okay," Sam laughed.

"Okay, I'm going back to your place, Sam, and staying there with your father and the kids. Mercedes, I'm assuming you are staying here?"

"Yes," she said and gave her a smile. Mary smiled back.

"Sam, honey, I love you. We will come with the kids in the morning."

"Good night, mom. Thank you."

She came over and leaned her cheek against his left one very gently, then turned to leave.

When the door closed behind her, Sam began to stroke Mercedes' hair and then brought his hand down to her arm and began to rake his fingers gently up and down. Shivers ran down her body at the light touch.

"Sam, I don't know what I would have done if I lost you."

"Don't think about that."

"I don't think I can stay here in your bed like this."

"I'd like to see them tell us you can't."

She snuggled against him tighter and his breathing soon became smooth and even as sleep took over his body. Mercedes wasn't the least bit tired. She waited five minutes to make sure he was definitely asleep and quietly slipped out of his arm. She looked at his eye lashes resting on his cheeks and his full lips. She tried avoiding looking at the injuries to his head. She leaned down and kissed him lightly on the lips and turned to leave the room.

When she stepped out, she went directly to the nurse's station was right in front of Sam's room. She walked up to the nurse inputting information into the computer and Mercedes asked her innocently where Gwen Reynolds' room was.

"She was in the accident too, and I just want to make sure she is okay. I know Sam would greatly appreciate it if I could tell him that she is alright." Mercedes gave her best concerned expression she could muster and crossed her fingers that she would help.

The nurse looked doubtful at first, but then smiled back at Mercedes and gave her room number 405.

"Thank you," Mercedes said to her as she turned and made her way down the hallway. She was walking slowly and purposefully. She got to room 405 and listened at the door to see if anyone was in there talking to her. It was quiet, so she pushed down the handle on the door and stepped into the darkened room.

She blinked a few times while her eyes adjusted to the dark and she looked towards the bed. There was a light snore being emitted from the bed and Mercedes walked up to the side until she was looking down on a heavily bandaged Gwen. She saw she had a cast on her leg and a good portion of her face was covered in bandages.

Mercedes felt oddly calm even as the hatred for this woman coursed through her entire body. She leaned in close.

"Wake the fuck up," She said loudly in Gwen's ear.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or What Alice Forgot or any of its characters.

**Thank you all for reading and reviewing. I am so grateful to every single one of you. Hope you enjoy!**

**RS/Samcedes girls – You guys are flawless. Xoxoxoxo.**

Gwen opened her eyes with a start. Mercedes stood up straight and watched as Gwen looked to her left then up and met her rage filled eyes. She immediately registered who was standing above her and frantically tried to reach for the nurse call button on the side of her bed. Mercedes grabbed her hand tightly and squeezed.

"No. You are going to lie there and listen to me," Mercedes said in a tone of voice that made Gwen stop moving instantly. She laid her head back against the pillows and watched Mercedes with a mixture of fear and dread. Mercedes flung her hand back at her in disgust and looked her dead in the eyes.

"I knew you were a menace even before I met you. I heard your voice over the line when I called Sam and I just knew what type of woman you were. I didn't even have to meet you to know. You were going after a married man. And as if that weren't enough, you were going after him solely for his money and fame.

I don't know, and I couldn't give a shit, what's happened to you to make you the way you are," Mercedes paused as she leaned into the cast of her broken leg, causing Gwen to cry out in pain, "But you tried to kill my husband, father to my children, and my two best friends tonight." Gwen had tears spilling out of her eyes and they tumbled down her cheeks, soaking into the bandages around her face and she had begun to cry loudly. Mercedes knew she only had a brief amount of time before someone heard her. She took the pressure off of her leg and leaned in close so their eyes were only a few inches from each other.

"Just know this: I am going to spend every single day working to get you thrown in jail for attempted murder. I am coming after you with all I've got, and believe me, I will crush you. If, by some miraculous reason, you beat these charges, I will make your life a living hell. You will curse the day you _ever_ set your sights on my husband," Mercedes paused when she heard footsteps coming down the hallway but they kept walking past the room. She looked back into Gwen's terrified eyes.

"Your silence tells me everything I need to know about what your intentions were tonight. If you fight these charges, I will hunt you down and destroy you," Mercedes finished just as there was a quick knock and the door started to open. She stood up and gave Gwen a quick hard slap on the side of the face most bandaged. Then she turned to walk towards the door just as her nurse was coming in.

"She looks like she's doing well, but I think she just has some pain in her leg," she said smiling to the nurse as she made her way out.

When she got out of the room, she leaned back against the hallway wall breathing heavily. Her body was shaking and she felt the blood that had rushed to her cheeks start to disperse. She had never felt this much hatred for anyone in her life before Gwen. Even though everyone was safe and alive, her mind kept returning to the "what if's".

She took a few more deep breaths, and then stood up and made her way quickly back to Sam's room. She smiled at the nurse at the desk and whispered a thank you as she opened the door. Sam was still asleep with his arm draped out just as she had left him. He was typically an active sleeper, but she knew the meds were probably putting him into a deep slumber.

She walked over to the bed and slipped off her shoes and climbed in carefully, nestling into his right side. Even though he was still sleeping, his right arm closed around her tightly. She nuzzled her face into his chest and breathed him in. She said a silent prayer of thanks for keeping him, Quinn and Kurt alive. Mercedes kissed his chest and promptly fell asleep.

Nurses came in and out all through the night. Every time they came, Mercedes would stand and help them do whatever they needed to do to check on Sam. He would never completely wake up, but every time Mercedes stood up and left his side, he would start to talk nonsense until she came back to lie down next to him. She was cracking up quietly with the nurse when he started singing on repeat, "I got her back by a bump to her head, bump to her head, bump to her head" to the tune of "The Wheels On The Bus Go Round and Round" in his sleep. Then his hand started feeling around the empty part of the bed and his face scrunched up as if he had just eaten a lemon. When she went to him and lay down again, his face would relax and his hand would settle back around her shoulder.

By the morning, Mercedes hadn't had much more than thirty minutes of sleep at a time, but it didn't matter. She had Sam. She opened her eyes and tilted her head to look up at him. He was already awake and seemed to have been watching her.

"Good morning," he said with a smile.

"Good morning," she said back, "Do you remember talking and singing last night?"

He looked back at her with a furrow between his eyes, "No…" he said slowly.

Mercedes laughed, "It was pretty comical. I should have recorded it for blackmail, but I didn't. You're lucky."

"Really? Lucky, huh? Okay, I'll remember that next time you are on pain meds and laid up in a hospital." He was smiling as he said it, and gave a little humph at the end.

"Are they wearing off? Here, let me get it." Mercedes sat up and reached over him, causing her shirt to pull down slightly and knocked him in the face with her ample breasts. She looked down quickly to make sure she hadn't hit his injuries, but he already had his tongue out and began to draw a wet line from the left side of her cleavage to the right. Goosebumps rose quickly, spreading down her arms and over her entire body.

"Sam," she whispered, "You have a concussion."

"I have a broken arm too, but I have a fully functioning tongue and d–" he was cut off by the familiar quick knock and door opening. Sam let out a frustrated groan. Mercedes grabbed a hold of the pain button and pushed it while sliding her tongue over his lips quickly before the nurse came around the curtain.

Sam groaned, "Tease," he said under his breath.

"Me? More like you!" Mercedes laughed back at him.

The nurse walked over to the bed smiling and checked on all of Sam's injuries. She showed Mercedes how to change the bandages and caring for the stitches in his head. She was shocked when she showed her the bruising all down his left torso because the doctor had not mentioned it. Mercedes drew in a horrified breath at the terrible discoloration. She looked back up at Sam with concerned eyes, but he was just smiling back at her.

"I'm okay, Cedes," he said quietly.

She nodded and the nurse continued. The cast material was completely breathable, but he would not be able to get it wet, so he needed to take baths instead of showers. Mercedes glanced at Sam briefly and he was wiggling his eyebrows at her. Rolling her eyes, but smiling, she looked back at the nurse to listen to what she was saying.

When she finished going over everything, she quickly gathered the soiled bandages and excused herself, saying she would be back with two breakfasts and that the doctor would be visiting him soon. When the door clicked closed, Sam looked at Mercedes.

"So, assisted bath times, huh?"

Mercedes laughed, "That's what you took away from that whole tutorial?"

"You know it."

He reached out his hand to her and she went closer to him and placed her small hand into his.

"So, about your singing last night," she said to him, grinning.

"Anything good that I should think about recording?"

"Um, no. You were singing about me bumping my head and that's how you got me back."

He gave her a gentle smile, "Well, at least I was singing the truth."

"We would have eventually ended up back together, Sam."

Mercedes watched him as he looked back at her with thoughtful eyes and he started to nod his head. She didn't realize she was nodding in time with his nods until he started laughing, but he stopped when it became painful. She moved to place a soothing hand against his chest.

"I need to go see Quinn and Kurt," she told him.

"You do. I need to call Steve and fill him in on everything. Will you pass me my cell? I think it's over there on that rolling table."

She looked across the room, and sure enough, his phone and wallet were sitting on top of it. Taking one hand off of him and unlocking the other from his hand, she walked over to get both items. She gave him the phone and put his wallet in the bedside table.

"I have 65 missed calls," Sam said once he turned on his phone.

"Oh, Sam. Good luck with that!" She said as she gave him a lingering kiss before turning to leave.

"No sympathy! I can't believe this," he said shaking his head.

She was walking away from the bed and turned back to look over her shoulder.

"I'll make it up to you."

"In that case, don't give me any sympathy for the rest of my stay here!"

She smiled and walked around the curtain. He was still talking.

"Strip tease? Massages every night for a year? Blow –"

"Sam!" She said cutting him off, "I'm about to open this door."

"I'll think of more ways you can make it up to me while you are away."

She just shook her head and opened the door. When she walked over to the nurse's station, she asked which rooms Quinn and Kurt were in and they happened to be side by side. She walked over to their section and heard Kurt's voice penetrating the closed door. He was cussing. Mercedes ran over to the door and opened it without knocking.

All four people in the room turned to look at her. Quinn was first to stand and walk towards her. Mercedes couldn't help but start to cry when she saw her friend. She had on a neck brace and her face had long cuts and bruising all over.

"Don't cry, Cedes. It looks worse than it feels," Quinn said in a really loud voice while hugging her.

Mercedes closed her eyes and the two friends held each other and before she knew it, Quinn had started crying too. They finally broke apart and Mercedes looked at her friend's face closely.

"I was terrified," she told her.

"I know," Quinn was still talking a lot louder than a normal conversation level, "Kurt just told me that psycho bitch was driving the car that hit us."

Mercedes looked over at Kurt sitting up in the bed. His left leg was in a cast and he had slashes on the left side of his face.

"Don't mind Quinn. She can't hear so we have to shout and she shouts back because she can't hear how loud her damn voice is," Kurt said as a greeting.

"What?" Quinn asked.

"See what I mean?" Kurt said shaking his head. "I said," he told her loudly, "You can't hear shit, so we all have to shout like we're 90 year olds at a nursing home."

Mercedes laughed and went over and gave Kurt a huge hug.

"Kurt, I could have lost my friend soul mate weeks after meeting you."

"Well, thanks to your gorgeous husband, we are all still alive. He's not only nice on the eyes, he's got instincts and reflexes like Superman."

Mercedes smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek. She turned around and saw that Puck had fallen sound asleep with his mouth hanging open on the couch and Blaine was sitting in a chair with a dark expression on his face.

"He wants to kill Gwen," Kurt said in explanation.

"I do too," Mercedes answered.

Quinn walked over and sat on the bed next to Kurt.

"We're talking about killing Gwen," Kurt shouted.

"I can hear you when you are right next to me, Kurt! And plus, it's my right ear I'm having trouble with," Quinn said and gave him a light shove.

"Have the police come to talk to you guys yet about giving a statement? I want her ass in jail as soon as legally possible," Mercedes said, anger filling her insides again.

"I think we will have to go to the station," Quinn started, "An Officer Martinez left his card with both of us. There's probably a card in Sam's room someplace too. Blaine told us Sam has a broken arm and concussion. Cedes, Kurt was not exaggerating. He saved our lives."

Mercedes nodded her head, "I know. Thank God."

"We are going to get this bitch in jail and then sue her for all of her worth to pay for these hospital bills. And she had better pray that these cuts on my face don't leave a noticeable scar. I'm waiting to talk to the plastic surgeon that comes on duty soon." Kurt was going on.

"When are we going to have our talk with her?" Quinn shouted, causing Kurt to jump and hold his hand against his heart.

"Jesus, Quinn, you need to give me a warning before speaking until those ears of yours heal up."

Mercedes smiled and couldn't stop herself from grabbing both of their hands.

"I love you guys."

"Aw, honey, I love you too," Kurt said, starting to blink rapidly to stop any tears that were threatening to fall.

"Love you too, sweetie. Now, let's go to her room. How do we find out where she is?" Quinn said in a little quieter voice.

"I know the room number," Mercedes said.

"Did you already go there?" Quinn asked with wide eyes.

"Yes. Last night after Sam fell asleep. I think she thought I was really going to kill her."

"Good!" Both Quinn and Kurt said at the same time.

"I'd like an explanation," Blaine said from his chair, "I'll get a wheelchair and let's go." He stood up and walked out of the room.

Kurt's eyes followed him until the door closed.

"He is so dark and brooding right now, and I've got to say, it's really turning me on." Kurt said.

They were telling each other what they were going to say to Gwen, when Blaine came back rolling a wheelchair in front of him. Both women got up from the bed and Blaine parked the chair in front of Kurt's bed and gently began to help him out and down into it. Kurt was trying to look like he was okay and not in pain, but he visibly was.

Quinn walked over to the couch and sat down next to Puck. He woke up with a start looking around not knowing where he was for a few seconds before waking up completely. He saw Quinn next to him and brought her close to him, making sure to be gentle with her neck.

"We are going to pay Gwen a visit," she said loudly to him.

Puck's face turned from love to fury in seconds.

"Let's go," he said and stood up first and turned to help Quinn stand.

"I'm okay, Puck," she said to him gently.

"I know," he said back.

Once she was up and they were holding hands, he came over to Mercedes and put his other arm around her.

"I owe Sam my life," he said to her.

They all walked out together and headed down the hallway to room 405.

When they got to her room, the door was open and the curtain was bunched together against the wall. The bed Gwen was in the previous night was empty and made up.

They all stood in the doorway shocked, trying to make sense of what they were seeing.

"She's gone," Mercedes said in a shocked whisper.

"We are fucking calling that cop now," Blaine said and began to push Kurt back to his room.

Kurt looked up at him with love then turned to Mercedes and waved.

"Go back to Sam, girl. We will come by later and tell you what he says."

Quinn turned her full body to Mercedes since she didn't have movement of her neck and gave her a hug.

"Kurt's right. You go back to Sam and we will all come by later."

Puck hadn't let go of Quinn's hand and took Mercedes in for a quick side hug with his free arm before following Kurt and Blaine down the hallway together. Mercedes watched for a little bit before turning to go in the opposite direction to Sam's room.

When she got there and opened the door, she heard Sam on the phone and the television was on, but muted.

"Steve, I don't know. Yes, call Amy," he paused listening, "I'm just surprised she hasn't sent out the press release yet, but I'm fine. I'm not even close to being on my death bed."

Mercedes had come around the curtain and was watching Sam. He smiled at her and then pointed to the mounted television on the wall. She saw a reporter in front of the hospital with a solemn look and pointed to a growing display of flowers, balloons and pictures of Sam next to the entrance of the hospital. She looked back at Sam and he did put the phone between his ear and shoulder, than did the yapping signal with his right hand and pointed to the phone.

"Can you just tell her we will do a quick press conference when I am released from the hospital? Hold on, Steve," he set the phone in his lap and covered the speaker with his hand and asked Mercedes, "Is that okay, Cedes? When we leave here, to just to a quick thank you to the fans and show them that I'm doing fine?"

"Of course it is, Sam," she responded.

He smiled and winked at her and brought the phone back to his ear.

"Okay, yeah, please just have Amy let the press know we will make a statement at one o'clock today. The doctor just left before I called and said I should be released just before one. Yes, really. Alright, thanks man. Bye."

In the full daylight, somehow his injuries didn't look as bad as they had during the night. They were looking at each other silently.

"Do you like a man with scars?"

Mercedes chuckled and walked to his bed.

"I love a man with scars," she said in a low voice.

She sat down next to him and began to gently massage his right shoulder. He closed his eyes and let out a groan of pleasure. He wrapped his arm around her back and brought her in closer so their faces were only centimeters away from each other. She went in the rest of the way and began to kiss him. While they were kissing, she brought her hand down his body and felt his firmness through the sheets. His groan this time was louder and he pushed his tongue into her mouth. They were both breathing heavy when the door flew open and slammed into the wall. Mercedes had just enough time to take her hand off of his hard package and disengage her lips from his, when they heard Laila talking to Trey.

"No, Trey, daddy's car got in a crash, but I love daddy's car because it protected him too."

"If he wasn't in the car, he would not have been in the crash!" Trey said back in exasperation.

Sam, in his haste, tried to sit up fast and immediately regretted it and his face contorted into a grimace as pain shot through his body.

"Sam!" Mercedes said with alarm just as the kids walked around the curtain.

Laila and Trey saw their father's expression of agony and coupled with the bandages around his head and arm in a cast, they froze in place.

"Dad?" Trey said trying to mask his scared voice unsuccessfully. Then Laila started to cry.

Mercedes looked from Sam to her frightened children and got up to run to them and took them both into a hug. Sam's parents had come into the room, but they stayed by the door so the kids could see Sam first.

Sam put a smile on his face, "Guys, you won't believe it, but I can hear my neighbor snoring through this wall!"

Laila started wiping away her tears from her eyes and cheeks.

"You can hear him through the wall?" she asked him tentatively as Mercedes let them go and stood up behind them.

"I can, it's that loud. Come here you two," he said and put his right arm out to receive them. Both of them ran to him and fell into his side. Trey turned his face away, but Mercedes saw him trying to wipe his eyes without anyone seeing him. Laila climbed up onto the bed next to him and started to study his face.

"Dad, did they say you are going to be okay?" Trey asked cautiously.

"They said I am going to be more than okay. In fact, what will help speed up the healing process is to read lots of comics with you, Trey. And Laila, they said you need to sing lots of songs to me." Both kids were beaming at him. "Oh, and I forgot the most important thing: gallons and gallons of ice cream!" Laila bounced up and down clapping and Trey punched the air just like his dad and let out a happy, "Yes!"

Mercedes smiled from where she was standing and felt his parents come stand on either side of her. Sam was laughing and looked up and saw his parents standing with Mercedes and gave them a huge smile that reminded her of the day they met.

"Hi, mom and dad. Did these guys wake you guys up at the crack of dawn?"

"Practically," Dwight said and walked to his son. They gave each other a long look and it seemed as though they communicated all they needed to say silently.

"I called Stevie last night so he knows you are okay. You would never know it by what the press is reporting about you," Mary told Sam.

"Well, we are going to have a really quick press conference when we leave so all of the rumors will be put to rest," Sam told them.

Mary looked startled and glanced at Mercedes.

"You're okay with that?" She asked her.

Mercedes was a little taken aback by the question and didn't answer right away.

"I mean, you guys have always been very private and I honestly don't think the kids have had any pictures taken of them that weren't taken by stalking paparazzi."

"I'm fine with it," Mercedes started, "I think it will be good for Sam to show everyone he's okay."

"It's alright, mom," Sam said to her, "It will be fast. I just want to thank everyone and stop the rumors."

"We're going to be on TV?" Trey asked in amazement.

"Only if you want to be," Sam said.

"Oh yeah. I can't wait for Billy and Andy to see!"

"Are you okay with it, Laila?" Mercedes asked, even though she was 100% certain she knew the answer.

"Yes," she said in a hushed voice with her eyes wide in awe.

All the adults laughed. Mary went over to the bed and all of them began to talk about what the doctor had told him. Mercedes was about to go over, when her phone beeped that she had received a text. She took it out of her pocket and saw it was from Kurt:

_O. Martinez said the hag was taken to the police station for questioning, that's why she was gone. He will call all of us later to sched a time for us to give statements. How's my hero?_

Relief swept through Mercedes that Gwen was being held for questioning, at least for now. She wrote Kurt a quick note back:

_Thank God for that. Your hero is good…the kids are here. Being discharged at 1 and holding a press conference. So official! Kurt, when we get home, that's it, he's HOME._

Not even 30 seconds later, his response came back:

_Get it, girl._

Mercedes laughed and put her phone back in her pocket. She looked over to the bed and Trey was involved in a trivia question game with Sam about who knew more about the Titans lineup. Laila was still sitting on the bed trying to teach her grandpa a hand clapping game. Mary was standing to the side just smiling. While Trey was trying to figure out an answer to one of the questions Sam had asked him, Sam looked over at Mercedes and mouthed, "I love you." She smiled and subtly blew him a kiss. Trey shouted out the answer to his dad's question and Sam drew his eyes away from Mercedes to his son and gave him a high five for getting it right.

Mercedes thought to herself: first press conference, then home with her family complete.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or What Alice Forgot or any of its characters.

**Thank you, everyone for reading. Sorry it took longer than usual for me to get this next chapter out. As always, I love reading your reviews and hearing your insights!**

**RS/Samcedes ladies: WHAT A WEEK! Rollercoaster of emotions. Hopefully Ms. Pretty was at the photoshoot today! Love you girls! Xoxoxoxooxo.**

Mercedes was looking through her car window at a nice two story grey-blue house with a white picket fence that was across the street. There were beautiful flowers growing along the fence and at the perimeter of the house.

She was filled with anxiety as she sat in the car debating with herself about whether she should go ring the doorbell or not.

"Just go, damn it." She said and glanced at herself in the mirror. Her fully made up eyes looked back at her and she cursed herself for being so indecisive. She took a deep breath and opened the door and got out. She looked down at herself while she straightened her purple silk shirt out over her jeans and began walking across the street towards the house. The click of her heels was the only sound besides the birds in the trees.

She walked up to the door and before she could talk herself out of it, she rang the doorbell.

The door opened and she was face to face with Tina.

"Why are you doing this, Tina?"

Tina looked back at her in a rage.

"Why am I doing this? Are you fucking kidding me? You were my closest friend and you kissed my husband! Who knows what you would have done if I hadn't interrupted!" Tina was shouting at her.

"I did not do anything but try to push him off of me. He assaulted me, Tina!"

"There is no way Rod would ever do that. You have a lot of nerve leveling those accusations just to save face."

"Tina, you cannot be this blind! Open your fucking eyes, he did it to me and he will do it to someone else. You would rather live in this drunk fantasy world of yours than face the damn truth!"

She did not have any time to field the blow that came. Tina had slapped her fully across the face. Mercedes held her cheek and looked back at her former friend in shock.

"You have destroyed my life here in Nashville. I have dirt on you and Principal Marcus. I know things about your marriage that I could leak to the press. I swear to you that I am going to get my revenge at some point in the future. I'm going to ruin you like you have ruined me," Tina spat out at her.

Mercedes woke up with a start. She opened her eyes and didn't remember where she was at first. She had broken out in a sweat and her body was completely rigid. She focused and she heard Sam's voice speaking quietly. She sat up from her reclining position on the couch in the hospital room.

"She's awake!" Sam said happily.

Mercedes looked over at him and tried to keep the knot in her stomach feeling out of her smile. Sam's smile faltered as he watched her.

"Cedes, are you okay?" he asked with concern.

She nodded, "Yes, I'm fine. I just need to use the restroom." He was still watching her, not believing what she was saying. "I'm fine, Sam." She stood up and walked over to the bathroom.

Once she was inside and had the door locked, she leaned with both hands against the sink and looked at her reflection. Was that a real memory? She thought to herself. It had to be. It was too detailed. What was Tina talking about with Marcus? And what dirt on her marriage? She reached to turn on the faucet and splashed water over her face.

Her insides still felt like they were tied up in knots. Mercedes had never felt hatred directed towards her like Tina had displayed. She splashed her face a couple more times before she heard a soft knock.

"Cedes? Let me in," Sam said through the locked door.

Mercedes grabbed the hand towel and blotted her face and hands dry then reached to open the door.

"Sam, you shouldn't be walking around yet," she said as he made his way into the bathroom slowly. He put his arm around her and she led him to the toilet and closed the lid so he could sit down. She lowered him down slowly. She could see it hurt him to move around too much.

"What did you dream?" He said as soon as he was sitting.

She looked quickly at him.

"I know you. Now tell me what it was."

Mercedes sat on the edge of the tub and looked down. There had never been secrets between them before, so to know that he wasn't aware of something so obviously traumatizing that had happened to her, it made her feel sick inside. She took a deep breath.

"Sam, Quinn told me the reason why Tina and I stopped being friends," Mercedes began. She looked from the floor to him. At the mention of Tina's name, Sam's eyes became dark. He didn't say anything and watched her, waiting for her to continue.

Mercedes started to speak quickly, trying to get the words out as fast as they could fall off of her tongue.

"She said Tina and Rod were over at our house and we were all drinking. I went to the wine cellar to get another bottle and Rod followed me down there," she paused because Sam's face had turned completely red and he was gritting his teeth, his eyes staring at her.

"Go on," He said in a low angry voice.

She reached out and put a hand on his leg and closer her eyes and said the rest.

"I guess he pushed me against the wall and started to kiss me. I fought back, but he forced himself onto me. Then Tina walked in and saw it happening. But she blamed me and not Rod."

When she was finished, she opened her eyes and looked at Sam. His jaw was set tight and his face was a darker shade of red than it had been before. He was looking at the far wall with a murderous expression. When he felt her looking at him, he turned to her.

"I'm going to kill him."

"Sam, they've moved away and –"

"He's not getting away with this. I never trusted that asshole." He was breathing hard and Mercedes was afraid he was going to send his blood pressure soaring.

She didn't know what to say, so she just scooted closer to him and rubbed his back.

"Mercedes," he said to her gently after a couple of minutes, "I didn't protect you from that prick." He turned his body towards her and he put his arm out to bring her against him. She got up from the tub and went into his arm leaning her head into his chest gently.

"If I ever see him again, I'm going to fucking kill him," he said into the top of her head.

"Sam, let's not talk about this anymore. It's in our past," she said and pulled away so she could look at him. He was still angry, but his expression was mixed with concern.

"What did you dream about?" He asked her softly.

"It was pretty – "she was interrupted by hear Laila's voice singing in the room and quick knocking at the bathroom door.

"Mommy? Daddy? Are you okay?" her little voice came through.

"Hi sweetie," Sam said, "We're fine. We'll be out in a minute."

He turned back to look at Mercedes.

"Let's talk about it when we get home, okay?" She said standing up and giving him a kiss.

Sam took a hold of her hand as she tried to walk to the door.

"Cedes, tell me the dream," he said in a serious tone.

Mercedes looked down and then back at him.

"It felt more like a memory than a dream. I was at Tina's house and went to her door, we argued and she slapped me. She said she was going to ruin me like I ruined her," Mercedes finished with a shudder remembering Tina's anger.

"I never liked her. Those two had better not ever set foot in Nashville or ever let me find them, I will kill Rod and tear Tina a new one. She's a manipulative drunk and I always felt things would have been different between us if you had never met her." The darkness that clouded his face startled Mercedes. She bent down in front of him.

"I can't believe I never saw it, Sam, but she's gone. Rod is gone. We don't have to spend time thinking about them." She leaned forward and kissed his nose. "Fuck them."

"I'm still going to kill Rod. But yeah, fuck 'em." He held out his arm to put around her shoulders so she could help him to stand up.

"Don't forget about my sponge bath tonight," He said with his relaxed swagger coming back into his voice.

"I haven't," she responded in a low and suggestive voice.

He smiled his side smile, "Forget the press conference," he said and grabbed her to him.

Mercedes laughed in surprise, "Be careful with yourself! Where were the kids earlier?" She asked him as she rested her hand on his chest.

"My mom took them to the cafeteria for some snacks."

"Nice. I wonder if they have any extra!" Mercedes went to open the door and Sam was leaning on her for support.

When they opened the door, they saw Laila was on Sam's bed and she had wrapped some clean bandages around her head and was pretending to faint while trying to get someone to play with her. Trey was sitting on a chair playing a game on a handheld gaming unit. Sam's parents were talking on the couch.

Laila woke up from her faint and saw her parents coming out of the restroom.

"Mommy, did you have to help daddy pee?" she asked loudly.

Mercedes practically caused Sam to fall over by stopping so suddenly.

"No!" she said with a flush; her cheeks reddening. Sam was watching her with enjoyment. He was trying not to crack up and pretended to have a coughing fit. But that caused his ribs to hurt, so he grimaced and let go of Mercedes, holding his side.

Trey immediately put his game down and hopped up from his chair and ran to his dad's other side.

"Dad, I can help too," he said and he gingerly put his hand around Sam's back to help bring him to the bed with Mercedes.

"Thanks buddy," Sam said and smiled down at his son.

Laila stood up on the high bed and hopped off, causing Mercedes' heart to skip a beat. She landed like a gymnast as Sam lowered himself onto the bed with Mercedes' and Trey's help.

They spent the next hour chatting in the room. Mary had brought some of her makeup and a change of clothes for both Sam and Mercedes. While she was putting on some light makeup, Mary brought Mercedes up to speed on the Evans family. Mary was still a grade school teacher. She had skipped around to different grades until she found her favorite: 3rd. Dwight had quit his desk job and opened his own hardware store that he loved. Stevie was living in Los Angeles and ran a successful production company with a friend, Artie, who he had met at a studio they used to both work at.

Sam and his father were talking quietly about the accident and Trey and Laila were beginning to get anxious.

Laila came over to Mercedes and threw herself dramatically over her lap.

"Mommy, are we ever going to leave?"

Mercedes looked at the clock and it read 12:30.

"Soon, honey. We are just waiting for the doctor to come in and then we are good to go."

The doctor came in five minutes later to make sure Sam was good and that Mercedes knew all the steps to prevent an infection from forming on any of Sam's injuries. Then he gave them the go ahead to leave. The nurse came in a few minutes later with all of the paperwork, a bag of supplies for caring for Sam's wounds at home and a wheelchair.

"Oh, no thank you. I don't need the chair," Sam said to the petite nurse.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Evans, the doctor requested you use this until you got downstairs."

"Really?" Sam looked genuinely shocked. "Okay, well, let's get me wheeled out."

He had changed into the loose running pants and a tee shirt his mom had brought from home with Mercedes' help.

The nurse wheeled the chair over to the side of the bed and he got out and lowered himself down into it. His phone beeped that he had a text message and he asked Mercedes to check it for him. She picked up the phone from the side table and read it.

"It's a message from Steve. He says he's downstairs and he will see us in the conference room the hospital set up."

"Great, let's do this! Laila, want to hop on my lap?" Her squeal answered his question as she carefully climbed on, making sure to be gentle. Sam's parents held hands, Mercedes put her arm around Trey and they all made their way downstairs. One of the nurses on the first floor pointed them in the direction of where they had set up the reporters.

"Sam, we'll wait out here, okay?" Mary said to her son and smiled at the rest of them. Then she and Dwight turned to go sit at a bay of chairs in the lobby.

The family was standing just outside the closed doors of a large conference room the hospital had graciously set up for the press conference. Sam had Laila hop off of his lap so he could get up and he opened the door a crack and saw the reporters were listening to Steve, who was acting as Sam's publicist, telling them this was just going to be a short conference and the Evans family would not be taking any questions. Mercedes could hear a groan spreading across the room and Sam chuckled next to her.

Mercedes was glad Sam was so calm and cool because she was suddenly a nervous wreck. She thought it would be no problem, but as they were making their way downstairs, her anxiety began to take hold. Sam looked at her.

"Hey, it's going to be easy, okay? I'm just going to say something quickly and we're out of there," he said and leaned his forehead on to hers.

"I love you, Sam," she said to him.

"I love you too."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Laila move quickly over to Trey and they were both looking at each other with excitement in their eyes. Trey said, "I know!" quietly to his sister trying to get her to calm down, but he was just as happy. They didn't realize both of their parents were watching them, and they linked pinkies together tightly and pulled them apart while both saying, "Wish Tree" at the same time.

Sam looked confused but happy at their sweetness. Mercedes knew exactly what they were talking about and her heart swelled. She would take Sam later to see the tree.

Just then, Steve came bounding out of the room, almost running into Sam and Mercedes.

"Oh! Wow, hi guys. What are y'all doing standing right outside like that? Okay, so they know no questions and it's gonna be short. Sam, man," he paused while taking Sam into a big hug and Mercedes was surprised to see tears in his eyes. "You're like a son to me. I'm so damn relieved you are okay. That fucking Gwen! Oh – hey, sorry kids. Don't listen to Uncle Steve," he was looking at their wide eyes nervously, "Okay, um, well, you guys go on in. Cedes, how do you still look so gorgeous after being up all night with this man?" He brought Mercedes in for a hug.

"Alright, you ready, Cedes?" Sam looked at her and held out his hand. She took it and the kids went to stand in front of them. Steve opened the door and the kids walked in first, with Sam and Mercedes right behind them. Immediately flash bulbs started going off and Sam gave a big easy smile to the reporters. Laila was waving and blowing kisses to them and Trey was looking at them shyly. Mercedes put on a smile, but her nerves were at an all-time high. She had both of her hands around Sam's right one. He looked down at her and winked.

They got to the table the hospital had set up and Sam sat down with Laila on his lap, Mercedes next to them and Trey on her other side.

"Thank you, everyone, for coming on such short notice. We just want to tell all of the fans and wonderful people who have prayed for our family and came here to the hospital to leave flowers and beautiful mementos: thank you from the bottom of our hearts. As you can see, I am just fine. Just a few minor scrapes and a broken arm," he continued with a smile, "Thank you to the doctors and nurses here at Nashville General, who have been so warm and professional. We are all heading home and we love you all. Thank you again." And Sam scooted back in the chair so Laila could get off of his lap first.

As she did, she said with flourish to the room, "Yes, thank you for the Mentos! We love everyone!" The room burst out into laughter. Mercedes was laughing along with the reporters, Trey had his face in his hands in mortification and Sam was just beaming at his daughter with love.

The four of them started to make their way to the door when a female reporter's voice yelled after them, "Do you have anything to say about the reports coming out that your wife had an affair with a Marcus Avery?"

Sam whirled around on the reporters.

"Who the hell said that?" He said with anger coursing through his voice. Mercedes started to usher the kids out of the room before they heard any more of the confrontation.

"Mom, what did that woman say about Principal Marcus?" Trey was asking.

At the same time, she heard Sam laying into the reporter about asking that type of disrespectful question about his wife to them and especially in front of their children. Her heart was pounding as she got out of the room with the kids and the door clicked closed behind them.

"Mom?" Trey was asking.

"Honey, I don't know. I think she was just trying to get your father angry for some reason," but she wasn't 100% present. Her mind was going a mile a minute. Had Marcus called the press? Why would they ask that right now? Then her dream/memory came back to her in a flash. Tina said she was going to try to ruin her. Is this how she was going to do it?

Just then, Sam pushed through the doors. He was livid.

"I should have known that woman would try to stir up some bs. I've had nothing but problems with Kristin turning my words around trying to get an exclusive. She's a local hack reporter trying to get her big break and she's the reason we hardly talk to the press together. If I had known she was there, I never would have had us do this."

"Do you think it was –" Mercedes began.

"Cedes, let's just get home and we'll talk about it there. Sound good?"

"Dad, why was she trying to get you mad?" Trey asked.

"You know what, buddy? Sometimes reporters just like to get a reaction. But we try not to give it to them, just like a kid at school who makes fun of other kids. Don't give them the time of day and they will get bored and move on." Sam said to his son.

"Daddy? Can I kick her in the shins?" Laila asked sweetly.

Mercedes and Sam laughed, but had to stop right away so she didn't actually do that to someone.

"Honey, we don't kick people in the shins. We just ignore them." Mercedes said trying to keep a straight face.

Laila screwed up her face like that was the worst solution she had ever heard. Mercedes thought so too, but she had to teach her kids about the non-violent way to handle situations.

Sam's parents came up to them and they all got ready to go back home. Sam only told them the conference went well and they headed to the car. The drive back was nice, everyone was just happy Sam was coming home and he was okay. Mercedes was trying to push images of Tina out of her mind.

When they got home, Trey and Laila hopped out of the car and asked if they could meet them in the house in a little while.

"Why, guys? What are you up to?" Sam asked. Mercedes took his hand and told him quietly to let them go. "Alright, but be back in 15 minutes, okay?" He said to them. The kids broke out in giddy laughter, yelled bye to their grandparents and ran around the house to the back.

"What are they doing?" Sam asked.

"I'll tell you in the house," Mercedes said.

"Okay…" Sam said slowly, but with a smile. He turned to his parents who had just gotten out of the car.

"Mom and Dad, thank you so much for everything." Sam said to them.

"Oh Sam," Mary Evans started before tearing up, "We're just so relieved you are okay." She took her son into a hug. Then she moved over to Mercedes and hugged her. She whispered in her ear, "A mother could not be happier than seeing her son back with the love of his life." Then she pulled away and squeezed Mercedes' shoulders and turned to walk back to the car.

Dwight and Sam had said their goodbyes and were already talking Vandy basketball. Dwight came over to Mercedes and gave her a bear hug and said bye with a wink. Mercedes and Sam waved to his parents as they drove the rounded driveway to go back down to the bottom of the hill.

Sam turned to Mercedes.

"So what's going on with our kids?"

"Sam, it's the most beautiful, sad and sweet thing all rolled into one. I was out walking and I saw this little tree down the property where it flattens out. The kids had tied ribbons to the branches and under a rock was a letter where Trey wrote that it was his and Laila's wish tree. That they would go there to wish for us to get back together and be in love again and for you to move back into the house. Then every time they made a wish, they would tie a ribbon to the tree. Sam, there were over a hundred."

Sam was listening to her and tears had sprung to his eyes.

"I – that is the sweetest and most heartbreaking thing I have ever heard," Sam stammered.

"I know," Mercedes said in a hushed voice.

"I wonder what they are doing with it now."

"I don't know, but they heard us say we love each other. We'll tell them we're back together officially when they come back?"

"Absolutely," Sam said.

"Should we go inside?" Mercedes asked.

"Should we fool around until they come back?" Sam asked back.

"Yes," Mercedes answered and he threw his arm around her and they made their way to the front door.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or What Alice Forgot or any of its characters.

**Okay, guys. This chapter is full of fluff. I thought we could all use it after that horrible Samcedes bomb Ryan Murphy tweeted a couple days ago. I hope you enjoy and as always, I love reading your reviews. Thank you for reading!**

**RS/Samcedes girls – RM is Evil Gunther (thanks, Gabi…it's the perfect description), but our ship is forever. Xoxoxoxo.**

As they walked to towards their front door, Sam began to slow and Mercedes looked quickly at him to make sure he was okay and not in pain. He was looking to the left of the house at a raised garden box that was currently teeming with a variety of purple flowers.

"I made that for you for our fifth year anniversary," Sam said reflectively, "I actually hammered it together down at dad's shop because I wanted it to be a surprise. I had planned for it to be this intricate design, but I was only really able to get the four sides together. But I engraved it myself," He finished with a proud smile.

Mercedes looked up at him sweetly, "Since I've known you, I don't think I've ever seen you pick up a hammer except to hang some of my pictures!"

"Wait until you see this masterful work of art," he said and he grabbed her hand as they started to walk towards the box. Mercedes glanced at the bag of supplies Sam's dad had left in the driveway for them as they walked past.

When they got to it, Mercedes let go of his hand so she could walk around the whole thing and take it in. The different types of wood he chose were beautiful. It was up to her knees and the flowers were bursting through over every square inch. She looked back up and smiled warmly.

"It's beautiful, Sam."

"I chose all the purple flowers I could find to plant that would actually do well here in Nashville." Sam was still sporting his proud expression.

Mercedes looked back down and saw the engraving he was talking about. She squatted so she could read what it said.

_For Mercedes, the love of my life._

_You are my forever._

_Love, Sam_

Mercedes looked back up at Sam with her hand on her heart.

"This is the best gift I have ever received," She said to him, "It's just beautiful, Sam. And you made it!"

She stood up and walked over to him.

"It's the most perfect gift. What did I get you?" She asked as she slipped her hand under his shirt and began to lightly rub her fingers down his firm abs. Sam bent his head down and Mercedes felt his breath come out hot on her ear.

"You took us to the Kiawah Resort in South Carolina," he said into her ear as she continued to rake her fingers lightly around the right side of his torso, "It was the best vacation we have ever had, just all around perfect. You surprised me and I didn't even know where we were going until we landed. It's also where you got pregnant with Laila."

Mercedes looked up at him quickly.

"Really?"

"All of your planned activities you scheduled went out of the window when we checked in. We only left the room to eat, and even then it was only sometimes. Mostly, we spent the whole vacation naked and eating room service. It was perfect. We didn't answer our phones, check email, didn't turn on the TV. You brought my guitar and we sang together, made love, talked." He was smiling remembering.

Mercedes wished with all of her heart she could remember as well. She cursed her memory that the only two things that had come back were of two nasty women.

"It sounds perfect," she said. She took her hand out from under his shirt and slipped it into his hand.

"Let's go inside," Sam said.

She stole another glance at her flower box and squeezed his hand and brought herself as close to him as she could. She loved the way she always felt while being next to him. Ever since they had met, she felt as if he would protect her against everything. That feeling had swept over her the minute they had all turned to walk around for orientation and stayed with her presently.

As they were walking to the front door, Mercedes bent down to grab the bag from the hospital. Sam let go of her hand so he could open the door. The doorknob turned and he pushed open the unlocked door.

"Cedes, even with losing your memory, you still have the same habits. I'm always getting on you for leaving the door unlocked," he lectured with a small smile on his face.

"Well, do you still squeeze the toothpaste from the middle instead of from the bottom?" She asked as she leaned on the foyer table to take off her shoes.

"Toothpaste tube squeeze placement is very different from locking a door!"

"Okay, I will give you that because you are hurt. But it's really annoying when I pick up the tube of paste and it folds in half because there's toothpaste on either side of the middle."

"What other things do I do that gets you testy?" Sam asked with a smirk.

"You always eat so fast, I'm afraid you're going to choke! Okay, you go."

"Yeah, I still do that. You never get the names of movies right. So it takes me five minutes to figure out what movie you're talking about. You go."

"You always leave the last two sips of beer in the bottle. Always," she was laughing, "You go."

"I finish all of my beer now," he had a big open mouthed smile, "You are the worst backseat driver. Ever. You go."

"You chomp your peanuts really loud. It's the only food you eat like that. Crunching like it's rattling your head. You go."

Sam was laughing now, "I still do that. You always let out a loud contented groan after taking your first sip of your coffee, but I actually really love that. It's very cute and it's like home."

Their laughter had died down and they stood apart looking at each other. Sam put his right hand out to her.

"Mercedes, you are so beautiful."

She flushed and walked the three steps to him and took his hand in both of hers. She brought it to her lips and began to kiss the back of it. Then turned it over and kissed down his fingers and to his palm as she looked up into his eyes. His hooded eyes looked down to hers and he leaned forward to bring his lips to hers. Their full lips melted into each other with the familiarity of so many countless kisses they had shared before. And yet, they both still felt passion as if they were newly dating.

Mercedes let go of Sam's hand and it immediately found its way to her ass. Meanwhile her hands began to explore his body.

"We need to move into my office. The kids are going to come back –" he was cut off by his own groan as she grabbed hold of his hard dick. She began stroking it over his pants as he walked her backwards towards his office. His mouth was back on hers and she was tingling all over her body in need for him.

They got to the door and he pushed her against it and broke away from their kiss to start kissing and sucking on her neck. Mercedes gripped him with one hand and her other one flew to the door frame to steady herself.

"You are very skilled," she began in a throaty voice, "for not – having - use of - your other – arm," she stammered out.

As if to prove her point, while still kissing her neck, he opened the door with his right hand and they backed into the room. He maneuvered her to the large couch and she sat down. He was about to sit when she stopped him and shook her head. Mercedes grabbed hold of the top of his running pants and boxer briefs and pulled them down and they fell around his ankles. She grabbed his dick with both hands and brought it into her mouth.

Sam let out a loud groan and grabbed her shoulder to prevent him from falling forward. She started slowly taking him in and out of her mouth while stroking his hard shaft with both hands in the same rhythm. His moans told her she was doing everything right.

"Cedes, oh my God. Fuck, this feels so good," his eyes were on her, not wanting to miss a single moment. She looked back up and him and they locked eyes as he started to move his hips in motion with her mouth sucking him. She felt her nipples harden in excitement and she began to move her own body on the couch in time with her mouth around his dick.

She started to go faster and suck on him harder. She tasted him before he fully came and used her tongue to rub on the head when she pulled up on him then licked the bottom of his cock as she plunged him into her mouth.

"Cedes, oh shit. Shit, I'm gonna cum!" Sam was squeezing her shoulder and she continued to go at the same pace until she felt him tense and his hot cum came shooting out into her mouth. Sam was still leaning on her and his body was twitching while coming down from his sexual high. She slipped him out of her mouth and stood up to find a Kleenex box. She heard him sit down on the sofa with a huge contented sigh as she brought a big mound of tissues to her mouth.

"Come over here," Sam said to her back.

Mercedes threw the tissues in the trash and turned towards him. He was sitting in a reclining position on the couch with his pants still around his ankles.

"Thank you, Cedes. That was amazing. I'm taking care of you tonight," he said with a mischievous smile.

"Sam, you're bare assed on your couch!" Mercedes said laughing and walking towards him.

"Did you hear what I said?"

"Yes, and I'm holding you to your word, but your balls are resting on that couch."

"I can't get my pants up!"

She stood next to him taking in his situation.

"I could take a picture of you so helpless here like this, you know."

"Would you keep it in your wallet?"

"I think I might."

Just then they heard a door and Trey and Laila's voices from the kitchen.

"Oh shit!" They both said at the same time. Mercedes grabbed hold of both the underwear and pants and yanked them up, but it was getting caught at his upper thighs because he couldn't hold his hips up.

"Cedes!" Sam was urgently saying to her.

"I know!" She was panicked but laughing at the same time, hearing the little feet get closer and closer.

"Mommy? Daddy?" Laila's little booming voice preceded her body.

Mercedes was trying to shove the pants up but there wasn't time, so she just tossed a throw pillow at him and hoped for the best.

"We're in here," Mercedes called to them and glanced back at Sam who had somehow expertly angled the pillow so it covered the fact that his pants were not pulled all the way up. She let out a small snort laugh as the door opened.

Both of the kids were flushed in the cheeks from running and had huge smiles on their faces. They were out of breath, but Trey managed to say, "Do you guys," he paused catching his breath, "Have something you want to talk to us about?"

Both kids looked between their parents expectantly with big green eyes.

Mercedes knew they could not have this talk with Sam in his current predicament. She looked over at Sam who was looking back at her like he was going to either laugh or have a panic attack.

"How about you two make a peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the four of us while I help your dad with his bandages? Then we will all sit at the table and have a talk." Mercedes said hoping they would jump on that opportunity and not on Sam's lap.

Laila looked like she was going to bolt for Sam anyway, but Trey called her to follow him.

"Alright!" Trey said with excitement, "Come on Laila!" and he bolted out of the room.

"Daddy, I'm going to make yours! Do you want more peanut butter? Or more jelly? Or even?"

With a little extra peanut butter, Mercedes thought.

Sam smiled at his daughter, "I like it with a little more peanut butter than jelly."

"You got it!" she squealed and ran out after Trey.

After she left, they looked back at each other and started to laugh.

"That was close," Mercedes said closing the door.

"Did you see how I covered myself just right with this pillow?" Sam asked.

"Yes, you were pretty pro at that," Mercedes said as she walked over to help him pull up his pants.

"That's because it wasn't the first time you threw that pillow at me to cover up," he said with a smirk.

"Lift your hips if you can," she said while trying to shimmy his boxers up first then the pants, "We've been almost caught in here before?"

"In the first couple years we lived here, three times. By different people."

"Wow! I like the sound of that," she said and helped him to a standing position.

"So are we just going to say something along the lines of these accidents have made us appreciate life and we love each other and are going to give it another chance?" She asked him.

"No, I think more simple. We are in love, we made a mistake, I'm moving back in. How about that?"

"I like it."

"I like this," he said and grabbed her ass and pulled her to him, "God, I've missed this." He buried his face into her neck.

"How did I convince myself that I didn't need your arms around me?" She said quietly into his ear.

He brought his head out from her neck and looked her in the eyes.

"It's pretty insane what the mind can convince us of, isn't it? I say the same thing about myself."

Mercedes looked at him and brought her fingers to the crinkle in his eyes that had gotten deeper than before. It used to only show when he was smiling, but now it was a constant. And she loved it. It gave his face even more character.

"Are you still afraid of when I regain my memory completely?"

He didn't hesitate before answering, "No."

She took in a sharp surprised breath, "Really?"

"Really. Cedes, I believe we were given a second chance for a reason. There's a plan for us and we'd better not fuck it up this time."

Mercedes stepped back and put out her right hand, "To not fucking up," she said waiting for him to shake on it.

"Alright," Sam said with a laugh and he shook her hand, "To not fucking up."

"Let's go have some pb&j."

They walked out of the office and back into the kitchen where they found Laila carefully spreading the peanut butter on a piece of bread while the jellied slice was already on the plate. Trey had made two and was making the third.

"Hi!" He said happily. This was the most animated Mercedes had seen him and she felt like she finally understood the toll their separation had taken on him that Sam told her about before. There was a heaviness that seemed to have left his ten year old body.

"Daddy, I measured it perfectly. I did this much more peanut butter than jelly," Laila said as she brought her fingers up and brought her little pointer and thumb apart a little.

Mercedes was pulling out the chair for Sam and he lowered himself into it.

"Laila, that's just perfect," he said to her happy and proud face.

Mercedes went to help them bring the plates to the table, but Trey told her to just sit. She smiled at him and did as was requested. She and Sam sat silently just watching their children gather the sandwiches and bring them to the table. Then they went to get their glasses and filled with ice and water. They worked together and were smiling the whole time. Sam reached over and squeezed Mercedes' hand.

When everything was ready, the kids took their seats and ignored their sandwiches. Both of their little heads were bobbing back and forth between their parents waiting for them to speak.

Mercedes looked at Sam letting him know she was waiting for him to say it.

"Okay, first of all, thank you for making lunch. These look delicious. Now, your mom and I wanted to tell you guys that we made a mistake. Sometimes adults make the wrong decision and luckily we have agreed that we are ready to fix it," Sam paused to look at Mercedes, who gave him a big smile. Then he looked back at the kids who were wide eyed and looked like they were not breathing.

"Kids, we are still in love and I'm going to be moving back here into the house."

The second he finished saying the last word, Laila and Trey were flying out of their seats. Trey came and wrapped his arms around Mercedes' neck and she scooted her chair back to give him a full hug. She hugged her son tightly and she heard him so faintly say in her ear, "I love you, mom." She closed her eyes, "I love you too, Trey." He pulled away and looked at her close. Then he put his forehead against hers and he grabbed her ears gently. He took her hands and put them on his own ears. He pulled on one ear, then the other and she copied his movements. As he pulled her ears, he said in time, "I'm your boy. Now you say, I'm your mama."

Mercedes repeated, "I'm your mama."

"Now, we both say at the same time: Forever and always."

Mercedes nodded and they said at the same time, "Forever and always."

He smiled and stood up straight.

"We used to do that every night when you put me to bed."

"Thanks for teaching it to me again, Trey. Can I still do that, or are you too old?"

He smiled shyly and looked down, "Maybe once a week."

"Okay," Mercedes smiled back at him. She looked over and Sam and Laila and she was snuggled up on his lap finishing up telling him about the Wish Tree. Sam was nodding and completely focused on her as if it were the first time he had heard of it. When she finished, he brought her in for a hug. She was careful to be gentle with his injuries.

"Laila, I think that has to be the most special tree in existence," he said to her.

Laila beamed with pride and looked over at Mercedes then Trey. Sam looked at Mercedes briefly with a smile then looked over at Trey too.

"Trey, would you guys take your mom and I to see the tree after we eat lunch?"

Laila and Trey looked at each other and seemed to communicate something silently.

"Yes, we will take you guys there, but you will need to wear blindfolds so we can keep its location a secret," Trey said.

Mercedes knew she was a horrible liar, so she just kept quiet and agreed to be blindfolded and taken to the tree. Laila climbed off of Sam's lap and came over to Mercedes. She hugged her mother and then stood up and put her little hands on her cheeks.

"Mommy, remember what I told you? Remember when I said you just had to take your pretend glasses off and look at daddy? You took them off! And now you see daddy again."

"You are one wise little girl," Mercedes told her.

"Like an owl?" Laila asked.

"Yes, just like a cute little owl."

She fluttered back to her seat "hooing" the whole way.

The family ate their sandwiches happily bantering. Trey made fun of Laila for thinking people brought their dad Mentos. Laila stuck her tongue out and said she was a wise owl, so she knew more than he did. Sam and Mercedes had left their phones at the front of the house, so for now, the outside world stayed just that.

After they finished, the kids ran upstairs to find something to use as blindfolds while Sam and Mercedes stayed downstairs and waited on the patio. Sam had his arm around her and she leaned into him while they both looked out over the grounds.

"Sam, they were so happy," she said to him.

"I know. I haven't seen Trey that happy for so long."

She nodded even though she didn't know. They were silent for a little while.

"There's a lot going on out there. We'll have to deal with it soon."

"I know, Cedes. But for today, screw it. Let's just be here with our kids and deal with everything else in the morning."

"I like your way of thinking," Mercedes said.

Sam just put his head onto the top of hers while they waited for the kids to come back downstairs. Soon they heard their footsteps come running down and towards them. Laila had a belt from one of their robes and Trey had two pirate's patches.

"Dibs on the patches," Sam said.

Mercedes burst out laughing and bent down so Laila could wrap the belt around her eyes. Trey gave the patches to Sam so he could do it himself since he had bandages around his head. Trey held Sam's hand and Laila took Mercedes'. Mercedes could see out of hers and she was pretty sure Sam could see out of his too, but they both pretended they couldn't see. They walked down the grass and towards the area that was familiar to Mercedes.

"Okay, so there are low branches coming up," Trey said, "So I think we should take off of your blindfolds now."

They took them off and looked around. They let go of their parent's hands and started to dash forward.

"Are you okay, going through here?" Mercedes asked him.

"I'm good. I'll just go slow."

They weaved through for a while, then they turned around a corner and the Wish Tree was right in front of them. It was just as beautiful as it had been when she accidentally found it. Sam was just staring. Trey bent over and picked up the rock and took out the plastic bag. He handed it to Laila and she opened it and took out the piece of paper and brought it to her mom.

Mercedes read it for the second time, but didn't even have to act, the tears were coming all on their own. She handed it to Sam. He read it and looked up at her.

"This is so beautiful," Mercedes said to them.

"So we came down here to decide if we were going to take the ribbons down or not," Trey said.

"But we decided to keep them, because it's so pretty," Laila finished.

"I think you guys made a good choice," Sam said, "You should keep this here forever."

Trey and Laila looked at him with smiles then each other.

"Okay, let's go back and have ice cream! Remember, daddy, you said you needed it to help you heal?" Laila said.

"I did say that, didn't I? Okay, let's go."

The kids decided to race back up to the house and left Sam and Mercedes there standing next to the tree.

"I'm never letting you go. No matter what is coming our way or what is thrown at us, we are in this to the end. I love you, Mercedes Evans."

"I love you too, Sam Evans."


End file.
